Sorry guys & gals
All Blacks 48: Dan Carter 2, Tana Umaga, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Richie McCaw tries; Dan Carter 5 pen 4 con.
Lions 18: Gareth Thomas, Simon Easterby tries; Jonny Wilkinson 2 pen con. Ht: 21-13.
Better luck next week in Auckland.
The All Blacks, sparked by one of the great individual displays by first five Dan Carter, have buried Clive Woodward's men 48-18 in a series-clinching victory in Wellington.
This week the Lions offered more. A lot more. They produced a committed and passionate performance, but were once again played off the park by a New Zealand side that gathered their poise after having to absorb a lightning strike from the Lions.
The All Blacks' cause was aided by a quite special display from Carter. It was so good, the Lions might well have been blinded by the glare of his brilliance as he amassed 33 points from five penalties, two fine tries and a quartet of conversions. So good, in fact, that it may well go down as the greatest of All Blacks performances in the No 10 jersey. It was assuredly of that class.
Carter set all sorts of records with his personal haul, as did his team who became the first side in the history of the Lions to post more than 40 points against them in a test match.
A much better start
The Lions, under huge pressure to win this match to stay alive, made a brilliant start, with a try to skipper Gareth Thomas inside the first minute for a 7-0 lead.
But it wasn't to last
But in a furious opening half, with tempers threatening to boil over on a number of occasions, the New Zealanders worked their way back into the match to regain the ascendancy via a couple of Dan Carter penalties and then scored a stunning try on the 18-minute mark through their own captain, Umaga. Umaga sparked the move when Thomas turned ball over on attack, fed the wonderful Carter who carved up a huge run upfield where he embarrassed both Gavin Henson and Shane Williams on defence and then fed his skipper beautifully for the finish.
Carter's conversion put the All Blacks out to 13-7, before Jonny Wilkinson got the Lions back in it with a couple of penalties to Carter's one. But there was time for one more before the break, the home side working a nice move from an attacking scrum to give left winger Sitiveni Sivivatu enough space wide for the finisher extraordinaire to step beautifully between Wilkinson and Williams for his sixth try in just three tests.
That made it 21-13 and that's the way it stayed till the break, with the All Blacks also losing second five Aaron Mauger to what looked like a hamstring injury late in the piece.
Any Lions hopes of working back into this match were killed four minutes after the restart when Carter notched a quite special try. Umaga sparked the move that saw Rodney So'oialo put the No 10 into some space, with his chip and chase with almost no margin of error being executed to perfection.
A lead of 31-13 meant that was pretty much that, though Carter had time to add a second, when he stepped inside Thomas with two men outside him to finish one of many sweeping All Black attacks and before it was said and done McCaw powered over in a maul to complete the ignominy.
Carter was the star of the show. No doubt. But the priceless Umaga was right up there, so too McCaw and halfback Byron Kelleher, under pressure, also showed there is life after Justin Marshall. At the end of a week when Woodward and his PR machine said plenty, the All Blacks had the last, and loudest, word.
At least the party in Wellington tonight will be enjoyed by the supporters of both camps.