Sharks 3 British and Irish Lions 39:The British and Irish Lions capitalised on their territorial domination in the second half to crush the Sharks in Durban, with tries from Ireland's Luke Fitzgerald and Jamie Heaslip. The touring side enjoyed 79 per cent of possession in the first half but the hosts held them at bay with a tremendous defensive effort and trailed just 7-3 at the interval, after only hooker Lee Mears managed to cross the line for the tourists.

Captain Paul O'Connell afterwards described the performance was the best of the tour so far.

"One of the biggest things is the defence, we've got four defensive systems trying to come together and play under one system and it came together well today," said the Munster and Ireland lock. "They had a lot of the ball there at the end and everyone looked very comfortable defending together.

"We would have liked to have got more points from the pressure and the possession we had in the first half, but were very patient and the points began to rack up," he said. "Pressure is very hard to defend against constantly and I think it paid off - the longer we stuck at it, the points did come.

"We looked a lot more like a team than we have done in the last few weeks."

The Sharks forwards tore into the rucks and mauls and defended with all their might, tackling themselves to a standstill as the Lions bombarded their line for most of the first half.

Scrumhalf Mike Phillips sparked the breakthrough when he threw a dummy and evaded the defence close to a ruck, finding number eight Heaslip in support before hooker Mears crashed over for a try in the 23rd minute.

Outhalf Ronan O'Gara added the conversion but Natal scrumhalf Rory Kockott cut the lead to four points with a penalty.

Phillips ensured the Lions made a flying start to the second half, scoring just two minutes after the restart when he dashed through a gaping hole, showed the ball twice and went on a diagonal run to the tryline.

The courageous Sharks defence faded away in the second half and wing Fitzgerald, fullback Lee Byrne and Heaslip added their names to the try-scorers' list.

O'Gara finished with three conversions and two penalties, while replacement outhalf James Hook converted the last try.

The victory was the Lions' fourth straight on tour and they have now won 10 of 11 matches against Natal dating back to 1910.

The first of three tests against South Africa is on June 20th.