Ireland centre Bundee Aki insists the British and Irish Lions must recover rapidly after seeing their goal of completing an unbeaten tour of Australia thwarted even before arriving Down Under.
The Lions slipped to a 28-24 defeat against Argentina in Dublin on Friday as they lost their tour opener for the first time since 1971, albeit against dangerous opponents whose surgical finishing demonstrated why they are ranked fifth in the world.
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Andy Farrell's men flew off to Perth on Saturday and have four weeks to find the improvements needed to turn their ambitious but error-strewn performance into a formula capable of toppling the Wallabies.
"Faz set out the aim for us to win every single game. To not be able to come out with the result that we wanted in the first game...this has got to be one of those things that we learn from quickly," Auckland-born Aki said.
"We're adults, we're old enough to be able to take it on the chin and move on quickly. Faz gives it to us straight, there's no mucking around or no hiding here, he just tells you how it is.
"There's no point in trying to sulk about it. If we bounce back quickly and try to get better every single day, this will only make us stronger and tighter."
Aki's heavyweight centre partnership with Scotland's Australia-born Sione Tuipulotu generated the most excitement in selection ahead of the sold-out clash at Dublin's Aviva Stadium, but the combination failed to add up to the sum of its parts.
While the Ireland powerhouse showed his strength as a carrier to surge over in the first half and Melburnian Tuipulotu had his moments with the ball in hand, together they were unable to link in the way the Lions were seeking and are unlikely to be used in tandem in the Test series.
"We all know how Sione is as a player, he's class. The frustrating thing for me was I wasn't able to connect well with him," Aki said.
"He's an unbelievable player and there's no excuses, we've got to get better as a partnership going forward.
"Sione has been my roomy lately. He snores a fair bit at the moment, so he keeps me up at night! But he's a great man.
"He speaks out loud, which is good because we need him to be himself. I just feed off him and he feeds off me. So it's brilliant, but we've just got to be better and keep learning together."
Boss Farrell is demanding an improvement from his squad when they start preparing for their opening match against Western Force next Saturday at Perth's Optus Stadium.
"We won't sugar-coat this. We need to be honest because if we're not honest, how do we gain trust with each other?" Farrell said.
"Losing hurts, especially in this jersey. We need to find the solutions pretty quickly and be honest with ourselves because some good has to come from this."
