Veteran Welsh prop Adam Jones has told his British and Irish Lions teammates that they will have to "box clever" in order to win the second Test against South Africa in Pretoria this coming Saturday and keep the series alive.

Speaking after his team's 21-26 loss to the Springboks in the opening match of the three-Test series in Durban at the weekend, Jones said the Lions must avoid getting into an arm wrestle with the imposing Bok pack.

In fact, he felt the Lions showed in their second-half comeback - they were trailing 7-26 with 12 minutes to go - that their real strike power is in the backline, and more particularly in the midfield where centres Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts regularly breached the Boks' defensive lines.

The 28-year-old prop, who has never been on the winning side in his encounters with the Boks - five times for Wales and now for the Lions - came on as a replacement for a struggling Phil Vickery in the 44th minute and steadied the Lions scrum against the powerful Bok pack.

In fact Jones felt the Lions were looking good for a win, even though they left their charge a bit late.

"We came so close, just five more minutes and we could have won," Jones said, adding: "It's our fault for giving them so many points in the first half."

He admitted that the Lions have lots to work on during the build-up to the second Test in Pretoria - mainly how to control the ball and get out of their own half.

But it is when it comes to the forward exchanges and the Boks' dominance in that area in the first international, that Jones feels there is a need to change tact.

While the Boks used the maul very effectively, once going for 30 metres before winning a penalty and soon afterwards scoring a try with a 10-metre charge, Jones feel the Lions must look elsewhere for scoring chances.

"I think with the good backs we've got, we got to give them the ball," he said, when asked what the Lions' tactics should be in Pretoria.

"You don't want to take them [the Boks] on in a massive forward game.

"When you've got men that big [in the SA team] you have to box a bit clever, go outside them rather than straight at them."

While Jones was loathe to discuss the scrum calamity, which saw Tendai Mtawarira destroy veteran Lions and England prop Phil Vickery - winning a string of penalties, two of which were converted into points - he said he was just happy to have made a contribution in the second half.

"I wasn't on in the first half, so it was difficult for me to make a call on that," he said, adding: "I was just pretty pleased for myself.

"I know how good their scrummagers are, guys like [Gurthro] Steenkamp and the Beast [Tendai Mtawarira].

"You don't want to take men that strong on in a wrestling match ... you must use your technique."

He acknowledged that the Lions have some work to do on their set pieces in the coming week, with the line-outs also not going too well for the tourists.

"It always starts up front, it is a cliche, but the set pieces are important and we have to work on that."

He felt the poor quality of the opposition in the six matches during the build-up to the weekend's first Test meant the Lions initially struggled to make the step up..

"It's a hell-of-a step up from what we play back home [in Europe] and maybe we were off the pace a bit in the first half, but we came through strongly in the second half."

He said he hoped that he had done enough in his time on the park, after replacing an out-of-sorts Vickery in the 44th minute, to get a starting role against the Springboks next week.

"Hopefully I did [do enough], but it is up to the coaches," he concluded.