By Bob Howitt

When he arrived in New Zealand back at the beginning of June, Sir Clive Woodward insisted his 2005 Lions team was the best prepared ever.

So how come they took such a shellacking from the All Blacks, and scored just three tries in the series while conceding a dozen?

Part of the team's misfortune unquestionably related to the injury sustained by Lawrence Dallaglio 20 minutes into the tour opener at Rotorua.

No, he wouldn't have swung the series the Lions way, but he would have provided inspirational leadership in the same manner Tana Umaga did for the All Blacks and Martin Johnson achieved with England at the 2003 World Cup.

Dallaglio's untimely exit was compounded when Brian O'Driscoll came to grief at Christchurch.

Although much was made of O'Driscoll's misfortune, I personally feel Dallaglio's loss was of greater significance because of his more imposing presence.

O'Driscoll is a gifted footballer and nice guy who operates out in the backline whereas Dallaglio is a commanding individual who never seems to be more than a pace or two away from the action.

One can have sympathy for Sir Clive over the Dallaglio disaster. But most of the team's other misfortunes were largely of his own making, most seriously his obsession with a clutch of England players who'd achieved greatness in 2003.

It wasn't as if England had gloriously sustained that level of performance in the wake of the World Cup.

In fact, it's hard to recall a significant victory secured by the men in white since.

Yet Sir Clive blissfully ignored quality performances from Welsh, Irish and, to a lesser extent, Scottish players as the Lions tour unfolded and invested almost exclusively in his aged English brethren for the all-important first Test in Christchurch.

Well, we all know what happened there. So comprehensively were the tourists cleaned out, and players like 36-year-old flanker Neil Back exposed, that the selectors affected 11 changes for the rematch at Wellington.

Finally, the selectors had acknowledged form, but the new line-up had only five days to develop combinations before taking on a red-hot All Black team.

Had the Lions' second Test XV been operating together for three weeks, say, they would unquestionably have been a more potent opponent for Graham Henry's team.

It's a sad statement, but there's desperately little of the Lions' three Test performances that will be remembered.

While the achievements of Tony O'Reilly from 1959, Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Mike Gibson and JPR Williams from 1971, Graham Price from 1983 and Gavin Hastings from 1993 are still talked about, the 2005 Lions are in danger of disappearing into anonymity as soon as they return home.

The tour will be remembered for the injuries to Dallaglio and O'Driscoll and for the fact that somehow Sir Clive Woodward managed to carve out some £10million and come up with almost nothing to show for it.

At least the Lions operated with resolve and commitment in the series finale at Eden Park and broke even in most aspects of the game, except the all-important one of scoring tries.

Rather predicably, the Lions' solitary try was a surge from a line-out, whereas the All Blacks pieced together five pearlers, with that man Umaga claiming two of them.

The All Blacks are playing an appealing expansive, high-tempo game in which the ball is kept alive at all costs.

It will be interesting to see how many of the home nations adopt the same style of game in the season ahead.