Lions too hot to handle for Barbarians in Hong Kong

The British & Irish Lions were feelin' hot, hot, hot after they hammered the Barbarians 59-8 in an opening performance at Hong Kong Stadium last night, which is certain to sound the alarm bells in Australia.

A match that began with a show of 60 drummers and snaking dragon dancers ended with the Lions beating the tom-toms loud and clear. The message is they have the firepower - both in winning possession and retaining it through their giant forwards as well as the skills in the backs to attack from anywhere - to win their first series in 16 years.

"I'm very pleased with what I saw tonight," said Lions head coach Warren Gatland. "It was tougher than the scoreline suggested, but it was a good run out and exactly what I wanted."

Asked if the Hong Kong outing would raise eyebrows in Australia, Gatland said: "I don't really care. Today's performance wasn't about Australia, it was about us putting foundations in place. We'll start concentrating on watching them a bit more closely now that we've got this game under our belt."

The eight-try rout was even more impressive considering the conditions were brutal with both captains, Paul O'Connell of the Lions and the Barbarians' Sergio Parisse, describing it as the "toughest they had ever played in".

This was a warm-up game in every aspect. The sizzling hot nature was even manifested by early events on the pitch when Barbarians hooker Schalk Brits took a shot at Saracens teammate Owen Farrell, perking up the attention of the 28,643-strong crowd, which until then had witnessed a stop-start game as both sides struggled in 33 degrees Celsius heat.

Scrumhalf Mike Phillips, named man of the match, and his second-half replacement, Conor Murray, were both in fine form as the Lions ran rings around opponents who could not string together any decent phases to put pressure on the Lions.