THINK back to the early rounds of this year’s French Open. Did Andy Murray enter the tournament at the top of his game? No, his aim was to play his way into form, and that is exactly what he has done, to the point where he is now in the last eight and at least close to his best again.

Or, if you prefer, cast your mind back to when Stephen Hendry was in his pomp. Did he plan to go into the World Championship playing his best snooker from the first day of the fortnight, or did he prefer to pace himself, steadily getting better?

One more example, the other way round this time. At the last Rugby World Cup, in 2015, Ireland were sensational in a couple of pool games, to the extent that some saw them as contenders for the trophy itself. They lost 43-20 to Argentina in the quarter-final - a convincing defeat which suggested they had peaked far too soon.

The lesson of these examples is that in competitions of any length, it is all but impossible for a team or individual to be at their best throughout. There is often a fine balance between being undercooked and overcooked, and it is better to err on the side of the former, in the hope that you can muddle through a couple of early encounters and slowly rediscover your swagger.

Which brings us to the British & Irish Lions, and their three-Test tour of New Zealand. Their 10-match, nearly-six-weeks-long, tour of New Zealand.

Warren Gatland’s team were roundly criticised for the rustiness and mediocrity they displayed in their 13-7 win over the Provincial Barbarians on Saturday, and understandably so from the point of view of spectators seeking entertainment. You can be sure that if they lose their second match, against the Blues in Auckland this morning, that criticism will intensify - again, justifiably so from one perspective.

But in the wider scheme of things, or indeed from the viewpoint of Gatland himself, the results of these early matches do not matter a jot. Aspects of the performance will concern the head coach, of course, but he will have plenty of time to change them in two ways: one, by getting those who are under-performing to train and play their way into form; or two, by replacing them with team-mates who are in better shape. The Lions have often had to deal with heavy criticism during the early stages of their tour - criticism that is not always made from the purest of motives. There are some New Zealanders who have no interest in encouraging the tourists to do well, and they will wade in just as happily as their Australian and South African counterparts do on other Lions tours.

Way back in 1971, for example, the Lions lost their first game, against Queensland. It was one of two matches they would play in Australia before heading to New Zealand for the Tests, and the 15-11 defeat saw them widely written off. They went on to win the series against the All Blacks by two Tests to one, with the fourth drawn.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Welsh full-back JPR Williams recalls in When Lions Roared, the newly-published book of that tour by Tom English and Peter Burns. “We were underrated after that, but within the party we knew we had one of the best back divisions of all time.”

The 2017 squad may not include many greats of the game, but they do have some men capable of playing exceptional stuff - even if few people in New Zealand are willing to acknowledge that. “Make no mistake,” the former Harlequins and All Blacks back Nick Evans wrote before the Provincial Barbarians game. “New Zealanders have 100 per cent confidence the tour will finish 10-0 in their favour.”

Evans himself predicted that the Lions would win their first two games and take a lot of heart from that, but even if they lose this morning there is no reason at all for them to panic. Of course the ideal is to win every match; and of course if you do lose you want it to be an undeserved and narrow defeat rather than a demoralising one. But let’s not pretend, along with the most partisan of All Blacks supporters today or their counterparts 46 years ago, that a bad defeat will be the end of the road for the Lions.

Losses, if they do occur, are there to be learned from. In fact, they can be the catalyst for a real and lasting improvement in a squad, provided the coach can draw the correct conclusions and has the players to implement them.

The best example of that came 20 years ago in South Africa, when the Lions lost to Northern Transvaal - the only time they tasted defeat before the series was won. The key lesson from that match was that the all-English front row would not be good enough to take on the Springboks, and Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer wasted no time in drawing it.

Make no mistake, the Lions are up against it. But writing them off this early does an injustice to their character and talent.