Australia v British & Irish Lions, Brisbane, June 22

Rob Howley (l) was pleased with the Lions' fightback against the Brumbies © PA Photos

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British & Irish Lions assistant coach Rob Howley says the tourists have learned a lot from their disappointing defeat at the hands of the Brumbies in Canberra on Tuesday.

Howley said one of the Lions' most significant problem areas in the 14-12 defeat, the tourists' first setback, was at the breakdown.

But Warren Gatland's right-hand man said the Lions had spoken at length about the issues surrounding the breakdown and they hoped to rectify the problems before the first Test against Australia on Saturday at Suncorp Stadium.

"The defeat to the Brumbies has given us a reality check in particular at the breakdown," Howley said. "A lot of discussion has been in that area. That's a collective effort and last night (against the Brumbies) there were a number of factors in terms of fluency and accuracy. There was a lot of separation between the ball player and the support player."

But Howley is confident improvement will be made and the defeat will be put behind them.

"We are bitterly disappointed. You take the hit but it is an important game on the weekend," he said. "The important thing on a Lions tour is momentum and over the past four-five games we have had momentum. That is hugely important and I think more so now. Maintaining momentum ... increasing momentum. It is how we react to it."

Howley said the Lions started poorly in Canberra but he was pleased with the fightback.

"It was a difficult first half in particular. The cohesion probably helped the Brumbies and we probably lacked that. But (I was) delighted in the last 20 minutes in terms of the impact off the bench," he said. "It's just a shame we were not able to close out that game in the last couple of minutes because that would have been a fantastic win if we had done that. But we move on, that's the nature of a Lions tour."