Not only that, Muir, who is part of the Springbok coaching team, believes the performance by his young side at a windswept Newlands will have given their senior counterparts a big boost ahead of the second Test.

"In the end, that felt like a win. It was a game of two halves and we got the ascendancy in the second, while they had it in the first," said Muir.

"The pride and character shown by the boys was very important and shows they can go on to better things. We wanted to see how the back row would perform as a unit and they were outstanding.

"From a Lions perspective, they finished the Test well and I think we turned that around. That was always an aim of ours to stop that, and we stemmed that tide to a certain extent."