Rory Best praised the Lions' performance this morning in Hamilton after their 34-6 victory over the Chiefs and says the team were fuelled by the fear of letting themselves down.
Tuesday's game comes just four days before the Lions' first Test match against New Zealand and most of those selected today are not expected to feature against the All Blacks.
With motivation possibly an issue for the Tourists, the Ireland skipper told Sky Sports he was happy with how the players reacted.
"I remember [the Tour] from four years ago and I said to the boys, 'if you let this one slip by, you'll regret it'," he said referencing his exclusion from all three Test matches against Australia in 2013.
"I regretted it for four years and to be fair to those boys, they've stood up today. I couldn't be prouder of the boys who picked themselves up off the ground."
Best highlighted the reaction of the players and said that the performance was one of the best of the Test series.
"I think we're happy, we talked about getting a reaction from this group and actually a lot of the results have not looked great for us so far.
"We've put ourselves in positions to win and win comfortably, tonight we did that and drove on. There's a great spirit throughout this squad and you saw that tonight. Everyone worked so hard for each other."
He added: "Even at the very end when we're winning comfortably, it's easy to concede a try and give up. You saw the way the guys kept marching forward and for a tighthead prop to make a turnover in the 80th minute, it shows what it means to everyone."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
