Wallabies captain James Horwill devastated after Lions mauling

SHATTERED captain James Horwill conceded there was "no sugar coating" the fact the Lions emphatically outplayed Australia at ANZ Stadium.

SHATTERED captain James Horwill denied the Wallabies were flat after their emotional win in Melbourne but conceded there was "no sugar coating" the fact the Lions emphatically outplayed Australia at ANZ Stadium.

Teary in victory a week earlier, Horwill bore hollow eyes post-match Saturday night as the reality of a rare opportunity lost sunk in following the Lions' dominant series win.

"Devastated. You don't get another crack for 12 years and there's one or two guys maybe, who if they decide to stay around, will get another crack," Horwill said.

"It's a tough pill to swallow because we didn't put our best out there.

"No matter what happens when you walk off the field, you want to know you have given it your best. We didn't play as well as we wanted and that's the disappointing part."

The British and Irish Lions cited Horwill's overt display of emotion following Australia's second Test win as evidence the Wallabies might struggle to get back up for the third Test, having already played their Grand Final.

This meshed with the Wallabies' reputation as traditionally better underdogs than favourites, but Horwill said a shocking start and a dysfunctional scrum - not being emotionally flat - was behind Australia's poor start, and ultimate defeat.

Kane Douglas withdrawing from a clean catch saw Will Genia knock on, and the Lions scored with only a minute on the clock.

""We probably started the opposite to the way we spoke about the way we wanted to do. We gave them a leg-up at the set-piece and our scrum didn't work which was disappointing," Horwill said.

"We started the way we would have liked to do in the second half and built some pressure and scored some points and got within three, but a couple of silly errors and misreads, they capitalised on it. It's incredibly disappointing.

"That's what Lions tours are about. It's the pinnacle of Test rugby. Ultimately it's the team that deals with the peaks and troughs who wins. They handled it better than we did.

"You can't sugar coat it. We weren't good enough today, and they were. The better team won."

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans echoed his skipper's sentiments - "Obviously it was a horrific start" - and said the Lions turned the screws on the Wallaby scrum.

This was the bad-old Wallabies frailties writ large; a crumbling scrum being penalised into oblivion by referee Roman Poite.

The Wallabies scrum gave up nine penalties, and kept the Lions scoreboard ticking over so much they could play more rugby, and tire the Australian legs. Even after the Wallabies drew to within three in a mini-fightback, gaps appeared late from the weary home side, and the Lions "punished" the Wallabies errors

"We didn't start well at set-piece and that gave them confidence to dictate, whichever way they chose. Because of the momentum, you tend to get things go your way and that compounds," Deans said.

"We had a sense we could work our way back into it. We scored early in the second half and got within three and it was game on again. But then, let a re-start bounce and gave the Lions access through the set-piece. They used the set-piece to great advantage. It created momentum and they kept going back to set-piece to punish us, and it was working for them."

Horwill said early penalties at scrum-time got them wary of getting further penalties, which opened the door for the Lions to attack from several angles.

"We got penalised early and we probably became gun-shy, we sat back and allowed them to dictate terms and that hurt us. They scrummaged well and we weren't up to scratch," he said.