Yesterday morning Rob Howley, the Lions backs coach and veteran of two tours as a player, met Keith Earls for a coffee and placed a metaphorical arm round his shoulders. He told the young Munsterman that all players, all teams, have bad days and that the good ones make sure they respond in the right manner.

For Earls, read the Lions' display at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Saturday. Littered with mistakes against a Royal XV full of players eager to demonstrate they were anything but second class, they drew on the strength of individuals such as Lee Byrne, Jamie Roberts and Paul O'Connell, the captain, to come home with a flurry of 24 points in the last 13 minutes that gave them their precious win in the opening fixture of the tour.

In truth, the Lions management learnt far more about their players from so limited a display than their forebears would have done from the 100-point win that began the 2001 tour to Australia. “The Lions badge can make you do funny things, you can feel like you're 6ft 8in tall or you go out, drop your first ball, try to get back into the game and it still goes wrong,” Howley said.

So Earls, 21, dropped three passes and a high kick - giving the opposition the lineout from which they scored their first try - contributing substantially to the litany of 14 turnovers that denied a sluggish XV any fluency in the first half. But he also tackled his way back into the game and was working up a degree of midfield understanding with Roberts by the time a host of replacements arrived in the final quarter.

Seven of the Lions had not played for five weeks; altitude and heat took their toll along with a distinct lack of atmosphere in a stadium capable of holding 42,000 but occupied by little more than 12,000. It was, Phil Vickery said, “the good kick up the a*** that we need, a reality check for a lot of the guys”, and by the finish, the Lions were much the stronger of the sides.

So they should have been, given their international experience. They will meet stronger teams at the breakdown and better scrum halves than Sarel Pretorius, who, nevertheless, drove his players forward so well and made Mike Blair's life a misery, and they will need to challenge opposition lineouts far more aggressively. But they will not complain if Ronan O'Gara keeps hitting his targets: seven successful kicks out of seven and a try in the last minute gave the confidence that even a veteran needs and his inside pass handed Tommy Bowe the Lions' first try of the tour.

But it was Byrne's moment of magic that tipped the scales their way. The Royal XV had, against the run of play, opened a 12-point lead when Bees Roux rumbled over for their third try, but, from the restart, the Wales full back hoisted an up-and-under, recovered it and won the race to the line.

By then the Royal XV's day in the sun was done. Alun Wyn Jones scored on the end of a rolling maul and Martyn Williams, the best of an unbalanced back row, flipped inside the pass from which O'Gara scored. But several Lions already know that they let their first opportunity pass them by and there will not be many more.

Scorers: Royal XV: Tries: Koch (17min), Barnes (27), Roux (66). Conversions: Olivier, Viljoen. Penalty goals: Olivier 2 (10, 23). Lions: Tries: Bowe (38), Byrne (67), A W Jones (76), O'Gara (80). Conversions: O'Gara 4. Penalty goals: O'Gara 3 (8, 43, 73).

Scoring sequence (Royal XV first): 0-3, 3-3, 10-3, 13-3, 18-3, 18-10 (half-time), 18-13, 25-13, 25-20, 25-23, 25-30, 25-37.

Royal XV: R Jeacocks (Leopards); E Seconds (Griquas), D van Rensburg (Leopards), H Coetzee (Griquas), B Basson (Griquas); N Olivier (Griquas; rep: R Viljoen, Griquas, 56), S Pretorius (Griquas; rep: J Coetzee, Pumas, 76); A Buckle (Griquas; rep: S Roberts, Griquas, 54), R Barnes (Griquas; rep: P van der Westhuizen, Leopards, 66), B Roux (Griquas), R Mathee (Leopards), J Lombaard (Griquas; rep: R Landman, Leopards, 56), W Koch (Leopards), D Raubenheimer (Griquas; rep: R W Kember, Leopards, 66), J Mokuena (Griquas).

Lions: L Byrne (Ospreys); T Bowe (Ospreys), K Earls (Munster; rep: R Flutey, London Wasps, 66), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Ospreys); R O'Gara (Munster), M Blair (Edinburgh; rep: M Phillips, Ospreys, 66); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Rees (Scarlets; rep: L Mears, Bath, 69), A Jones (Ospreys; rep: P Vickery, London Wasps, 66), S Shaw (London Wasps; rep: A W Jones, Ospreys, 66), P O'Connell (Munster), J Worsley (London Wasps), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), D Wallace (Munster; rep: J Heaslip, Leinster, 66).

Referee: M Jonker.

Attendance: 12,352.