Lions welcomed in New Zealand, thoughts with London victims
ByReuters
Updated 04/06/2017 at 08:49 GMT
The British and Irish Lions were officially welcomed to New Zealand on Sunday but their thoughts were quickly dragged back to Europe after news of the deadly terror attack in London filtered through.
Sam Warburton
Image credit: Getty Images
The Lions arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday and scraped to a 13-7 victory over a team made up of semi-professional and amateur players in Whangarei on Saturday before heading north to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds for an official welcome ceremony.
The side learned shortly after their arrival of the attack in London, where militants drove a van into pedestrians before stabbing several others.
Six people were killed and more than 30 injured, while police shot the three attackers dead.
"In future performances and wins, we'll dedicate to those who have been involved," Warburton added.
"And I guess we can play a small part in trying to cheer a majority of the nation up by trying to be successful over here. We'll commit our performances and all our efforts to those involved recently in London."
Tour manager John Spencer said the squad had been shocked after hearing the news.
"The boys are very shocked, some of them don't even know about it yet," Spencer added.
"But can I just please express our sympathies with those who have been injured back home. This is a dreadful tragedy and our thoughts ... are certainly with those who have been injured - and their families.
"We're four nations but we're one jersey, one team, and we'll all stand united here about the sentiments in London."
Michael Carrick has changed the time of his testimonial due to the concert being held following the terrorist attack in Manchester, but the gig is expected to continue.
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