Captain Warren Whiteley says the Lions were not direct enough in their approach in their 38-35 loss to the Blues at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions led by 18 points after 55 minutes, but they continued to play an expansive game and allowed the Blues back into the contest, eventually resulting in Murphy Taramai scoring a last-minute match-winning try.

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Whiteley, who left the field with a knee injury in the first half, said the Lions should have kept the game tighter to secure the win.

‘It was a bit frantic. I thought we got a bit loose, and started giving too much possession away. We weren’t clinical enough, direct enough and we did not stick to our strengths. I thought if we kept it a bit tighter we would have got a lot more reward.

‘We started throwing the ball around a bit. Although they did put us under pressure, and credit to the Blues, they put linespeed on us. It just felt like we were throwing the ball away.

‘We all know how good they are and how clinical they are on turnover possession and they feed off that. That’s what they did.

‘It’s disappointing because our strength is the last 20 minutes. Tonight that is where they took the game away from us.’

Whiteley added that his knee injury was not serious, and the initial thought was that he would be out for the next week or two.

The Lions next face the bottom-dwelling Sunwolves.

‘We have to bounce back from this. We will learn a lot from this game,’ Whiteley added.

WATCH: Lions post-match press conference

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