Paul O'Connell issued a damning indictment of the Lions after their 19-13 defeat to the New Zealand Maori in Hamilton.

Just a fortnight out from the first Test against the All Blacks in Christchurch, the Lions vice-captain admitted they had not been aggressive enough to compete with a Maori side brimming with passion and emotion.

"The Maori put more players into the ruck than we did and there are different refereeing interpretations at the ruck, but they were more aggressive than us at the breakdown, they were more aggressive than us all over the pitch," said O'Connell.

"Their aggression and their work at the breakdown was sharper than ours. That is a big lesson for us, a big wake-up call.

"There are lessons to be learned at the breakdown, line-out and scrum. There were a lot of good things in the line-out, but a lot of bad things as well.

"It is not like it was anything small for us today but we were beaten in a lot of areas - the line-out, the breakdown and overall aggression.

"I don't think that will happen again on this tour."

The Lions can ill-afford a repeat. The All Blacks, fresh from their 91-0 stroll past Fiji yesterday, will have been interested observers in today's game. And what they saw will hardly have struck fear into the camp.

The Lions made unforced errors, their own line-out was poor, they were slow in support and second-best at the breakdown.

The Maori, inspired by the ubiquitous loose forward pair of Jonno Gibbes and Marty Holah, closed down every escape valve available to the Lions and squeezed on the pressure.

The Lions defence held firm for much of the game, which was just as well given two thirds of it was played in their own territory.

The Lions created nothing until they trailed by 11 points with just 12 minutes remaining, when Brian O'Driscoll scored a neat try to set up a grandstand finish.

But as O'Driscoll and Sir Clive Woodward both admitted, a Lions victory would have been entirely unjust.

This match is likely to prove a watershed on this tour.

Either Woodward's multi-million pound roadshow will hit the skids, or it will click into a higher gear and the defeat will actually prove to have been a good thing heading into the Test series.

"All 45 players came in after the game and we realise a game like that makes or breaks us," said skipper Brian O'Driscoll.

"We must stay tight together. There will be comments thrown around that we are not up to the challenge, but we must believe in our own ability, regroup and hopefully put in a performance on Wednesday (against Wellington) that justifies what this squad is about.

"They were the better team on the night, they played smarter rugby and we weren't smart enough.

"The correct result came about, but you can take something from the fact we weren't really in the game but only lost by six points.

"You have to take the positives. We played poorly and we didn't play with any territory but we lost by six points.

"We must use the hurt from this game and make sure we don't feel it again."

Martyn Williams, who had been looking for a big performance to take pole position in the race for the Test number seven jersey but endured a tough night, believes that can be done.

"The character is definitely there. We defended for 80 minutes and only conceded one try.

"If there was no character it would have been 40 or 50 points," he said.

"We dug in to still be in the game. But we need to look for character when we have got the ball a little bit more."