Ian McGeechan was happy to see his Lions come through "a good challenge" against the Cheetahs at Vodacom Park.
Skipper O'Connell concerned about the breakdown despite win
British and Irish Lions head coach Ian McGeechan was happy to see his side come through "a good challenge" against the Cheetahs.
The tourists just about maintained their perfect record in South Africa with a hard-fought 26-24 success at Vodacom Park.
First-half tries by Stephen Ferris and Keith Earls helped the Lions establish a 20-0 lead but they were forced to hang on in the closing stages.
The Cheetahs came roaring back and would have clinched victory had substitute Louis Strydom found the target with a late drop goal attempt.
Good position
"We got ourselves into a good position and didn't develop it as we could have done," admitted McGeechan after seeing his side survive at the death.
"The breakdowns became a bit of a lottery and took a lot of momentum out of the game.
"We knew the games were going to get increasingly tougher, and I think it was a good challenge.
"You can never under-estimate how important a win is to the squad. The start was very good, but it became stop-start after that, which disappointed us."
McGeechan praised the performance of James Hook. The Wales fly-half kicked 16 points to help the Lions make it three wins from three on tour.
"In all three games our goalkickers have been significant," he added.
"I thought the half-backs played well and gave us a chance to play in the right areas."
Captain Paul O'Connell felt the Lions failed to build on a fantastic start, citing the breakdown as an area that needs further work ahead of the three-Test series against the Springboks.
Numbers
"Maybe we stopped putting as many numbers at the breakdown - you need numbers there, to be low and aggressive, and we didn't do that," he said.
"Turning the ball over killed us. They can take momentum out of your team and give the other team belief.
"We started off very well. After Wednesday's game (when the Lions beat the Golden Lions 74-10) people perhaps thought it was going to be more of the same, but the Cheetahs went up a gear.
"I am disappointed for the guys. We've had a great buzz, and the guys were very enthusiastic, but for nine of the guys it was their first game in a while, so to get away with the win was important.
"Decisions will go against you in a rugby game. We needed to be a bit more clever than we were when Stephen was in the bin."
