British and Irish Lions tour ratings: Maro Itoje, Tadhg Furlong and Jonathan Davies stand out as All Blacks series drawn

Man-for-man marking from the 2017 Lions tour of New Zealand

Jack de Menezes
Auckland
Sunday 09 July 2017 05:24 BST
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The British and Irish Lions return from New Zealand with a draw in the bag after their three-Test series ended 1-1 following Saturday’s 15-15 result in the Eden Park decider.

The nail-biting encounter brought the curtain down on what has been a fantastic series and a great advert not just for New Zealand and the Lions, but for rugby on the whole. The entire tour has been passionately supported, with more than 20,000 fans flying over from the United Kingdom and Ireland, while an estimated 2m viewers watched the final Test back home.

The series draw means that the lions are now unbeaten on their last two tours, having also clinched a win in Australia four years ago, but they fell agonisingly short in their effort to secure a first tour triumph since 1971 as each side claimed a win apiece.

A number of players put in a string of strong performances, while the Test side was very different to what pre-tour expectations were as various players forced their way into contention in Warren Gatland’s squad.

Here, we take a closer look at how each player performed across the whole tour, analysing who delivered the goods and who will head home disappointed.

Click on the gallery above to see our tour ratings.

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