The Lions suffered a 'blackwash' in New Zealand for only the third time in their history after a painful tour ended with a 38-19 defeat in the final Test of the series.

The 1966 and 1983 tourists both found themselves on the wrong end of a clean sweep against the All Blacks and Sir Clive Woodward's side added another disappointing chapter to the Lions' history books.

The Lions have beaten the All Blacks only once in 11 tours. This year Woodward's pride lost the Test series 3-0 and were outscored by 12 tries to three and 107 points to 40 by a rampant, brilliant All Blacks side.

On this occasion the Lions battled bravely but the match was always out of reach once the All Blacks had surged ahead with quick-fire tries from Conrad Smith and Ali Williams when Tana Umaga was in the sin-bin.

The Lions tried to cling on and Stephen Jones kicked four first-half penaltues but Umaga broke their resilience with New Zealand's third try for a 24-12 lead at the interval.

Umaga crashed over for another immediately after the interval and although Lewis Moody burrowed over for the Lions, Rico Gear's intercept try in the last minute rounded off the series for New Zealand.

Lions skipper Gareth Thomas told Sky Sports: "It's been a difficult series. I've been proud to play with the guys because we never gave up at any point in the series.

"We let New Zealand back into the match a bit. If you concede turnover ball against this side you'll get punished. They take their chances."

New Zealand counterpart Umaga said: "We're very happy to win the series. There were a lot of changes to both sides and there was some weary rugby out there.

"It may not have been the greatest rugby after what we've seen over the last two weeks but we came here to win and that's what we did. We'll enjoy this victory."