Lions coach Graham Henry is hopeful that his first choice fly half Jonny Wilkinson will recover from injury in time to take his place in the side for the third and deciding Test against Ausatralia in Sydney next weekend.

Wilkinson was carried off the field on a stretcher three minutes from the end of today's 32-14 defeat at Melbourne's Colonial Stadium after suffering a serious-looking leg injury attempting to tackle Daniel Herbert.

"I don't think it is as bad as it looked at first," said Henry. "But we will have to check him out to find out."

Henry's team saw a five-point interval lead overturned by Roff's seven-minute brace after the interval, rendering a first-half try from Neil Back meaningless.

"We played well in the first-half but after that we weren't good enough," admitted Henry.

"We panicked a bit in the line-out and didn't scrum as well as we did last week.

"Australia obviously did their homework this week and now we must do the same.

"The interception try just after half-time was crucial."

Match-winner Joe Roff knows his Test place is under pressure with the imminent cross-code switch of league legend Wendell Sailor.

But he was just delighted to answer the critics who had ravaged the world champions' dismal display last week.

"The back-slappers turned into back-stabbers last week," he said.

"We knew we had a job to do and we did really well in parts but there is still one Test to go and we have to stay focused.

"It will be as tough a game as we have ever played."

Scrum-half George Gregan was equally delighted in the swift about-turn in Wallaby fortunes.

"We absorbed a lot of pressure in the first-half and we knew at half-time that if we could get our fair share of possession we could cause them problems.

"At this level, any time you get into opposition territory you have to come away with points.

"Finally, we managed to get some quality ball and what we achieved gives us a lot of enthusiasm and confidence for next week."

Lions captain Martin Johnson said: "We gave them the momentum at the start of the second half.

"We lost control of the ball - gave the interception try away and then made mistakes. Suddenly they've got 15 points and we we're chasing the game.

"But we should have bounced back from that and we got a little bit more ragged as we chased the game. But they are a good side if you let them play."

He believed the tourists should have put more points on the board in the first half - long before Matt Burke's try completed a personal haul of 25 points for the recalled kicker.

Johnson continued: "We had a few more clean breaks than them in the first half but the second half was different.

"There's not a lot to say. We've got to have a little look at our performance and do a bit of soul-searching."

The Leicester player added: "Now we've got one more game left and it's the biggest game of our lives."

"We didn't want to go to Sydney with the series on the line - but now we've got to do it.

"We've got to dig deep now and bounce back. We've got to regroup."