British and Irish Lions: Warren Gatland frets over scrum officiating

British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland says his side have to resolve their scrummaging issues, after Tuesday's loss to the Highlanders.

The Lions pack conceded a couple of crucial penalties towards the end of the 23-22 defeat in Dunedin.

Gatland says Australian Angus Gardner refereed the game differently to how France's Mathieu Raynal handled the Lions' win over the Crusaders.

"Maybe we can get all the Frenchmen in charge of the games," Gatland joked.

"We've gone from single figures [penalties conceded] on Saturday to double figures.

"That really hurt us. We have to make sure we are better in those moments because that's the difference between sometimes winning and losing games."

The Lions led 22-13 in the second half before conceding 10 unanswered points to lose for the second time on tour.

The tourists were exposed in the final quarter at the set-piece, with Marty Banks kicking the match-winning penalty after the Highlanders made a mess of a Lions scrum six minutes from time.

"We've all got to learn from the interpretations of the referee at scrum time," Gatland said.

"I looked at those two penalties against Dan Cole, and I think the first one is a penalty to us.

"There is no doubt they got some ascendancy in the second scrum penalty, and they have got on top of us.

"We need to adapt to that and make sure we work really hard over the next couple of weeks to rectify an issue - if there is - at scrum time."

'Lions need to stick together'

The Lions next face the Maori All Blacks in Rotorua on Saturday, with Gatland likely to pick a similar team to the one that impressively beat the Crusaders.

But, while the midweek side have lost both their games, fly-half Dan Biggar insists there will be no splits in the camp.

"We're all in this together," Biggar said.

"If we win on the Saturday, it's a 41-man effort. If we lose on the Wednesday, or whatever, it's a team effort as well.

"That's been the mindset from day one, and it's certainly not going to change now. We have to stick together and try and build momentum with an incredibly tough game on Saturday."

Centre Robbie Henshaw, meanwhile, says he is "extremely frustrated" to have been involved in two defeats in a Lions shirt.

"To be in the red shirt is a privilege," the Irishman said.

"We want to win and we want to do ourselves proud and do the jersey proud."

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