Hardaker confident Lions will bounce back

Great Britain full-back Zak Hardaker is confident his side will recover from their 14-6 loss to Tonga on Saturday. In the first Lions tour since 2007, Wayne Bennett’s side were defeated narrowly in a brutal match in Hamilton. It was the first of four matches of their tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and it got off to a bad start for Wayne Bennett with a dislocated shoulder to Wigan centre Oliver Gildart adding to his woes. The Lions prepare to face the Kiwis in two Tests in the coming weeks before finishing off against Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. Hardaker, who is back in the international fold for the first time since 2017, says both sides will be up for the next game in Auckland on Saturday, with New Zealand losing to Australia 26-4. “I think we both went similar ways,” he said. “Both kicking games were poor and the sets leading up to it weren’t great. Hopefully, both teams go away and learn from the losses and fix things up and that’ll make it really exciting for the weekend. There are things we can fix up and I’m sure they’ll do the same.”