The Lions suffered a 21-3 first Test mauling at the hands of a rampant New Zealand side in Christchurch - and that was not the only bad news.

As if the result was not painful enough for Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward, captain Brian O'Driscoll and Tom Shanklin have been ruled out for the rest of the series and Richard Hill may well also be coming home.

O'Driscoll was carried off inside the first two minutes of a ferocious, relentless Test match with a dislocated shoulder and the Lions suffered a further blow soon after when Hill limped off after 18 minutes.

The England flanker was later seen hobbling around on crutches after an extensive examination of his knee revealed "serious" damage.

And unless Woodward can pull off something miraculous in the next fortnight, the Lions' hopes of a series victory will also be dead and buried.

The All Blacks strangled them virtually from the kick-off, dominating territory, enjoying large swathes of possession and forcing mistakes from the Lions which they translated into tries for Ali Williams and Sitiveni Sivivatu.

Fly-half Dan Carter, enjoying clean possession on the front foot, easily won the battle of the stand-offs and he slotted 11 points with the boot.

Stephen Jones and Jonny Wilkinson had their attacking influence nullified. Wilkinson put in a sterling defensive display at inside centre but was able to contribute only a solitary penalty to the Lions' cause.

Woodward said: "It has been a bad night for us. I picked a lineout team and as it turned out they dominated that part of the game. "Defensively we were fantastic and then to give a soft try away from a lineout was very disappointing."

All Blacks coach Graham Henry said: "We could have scored a number of times but we didn't. To catch and pass in those conditions was not easy.

"I was delighted with the tight five. They dominated at the lineout and had parity at the scrum. We thought that was where the contest would be."