Andy Farrell hopes the British and Irish Lions learn from their stuttering display against New South Wales Waratahs.

The Lions won 21-10 on Saturday in Sydney, despite turning in a sub-par display.

Huw Jones went over twice and Alex Mitchell also scored for the Lions, who owed much, too, to the kicking of Fin Smith.

Farrell's team conceded 10 turnovers and gave away 13 penalties in an error-strewn performance, and the Lions coach knows there is plenty of room for improvement despite picking up a third straight victory.

"I'm satisfied with the win, you have to celebrate every win," he told Sky Sports.

"But with the amount of territory and possession we had, to come away with so many dropped balls and turnovers, to say we left a few out there is an understatement.

"We didn't come out of the blocks hard enough. We need to address that and we need to address our exits after scoring tries and be more clinical there.

"But this was a different type of game, it's good for us, they played hard at the breakdown, with good line speed, so there were some good learnings from us along the way."

Captain Tadhg Beirne echoed Farrell's comments.

"It probably wasn't the step forward we were looking for. It was quite scrappy at times," he said.

"The ball was slippy out there and we didn't hold on to it and we lacked that cohesiveness we were looking for.

"That's what we'll be looking to improve on, but we certainly took a step up in terms of our scrum and our lineout, which was a great part of our game tonight. 

"But overall, I can imagine we'll be a bit frustrated with not being as clinical as we could've been." 

Next up for the Lions is a clash with ACT Brumbies on Wednesday, with the Test series against Australia starting on July 19.

"They're a fantastic side. We know what we're in for up there," Farrell said of facing the Brumbies.

"But, this is how these tours go. We bounce from game to game and we take the learnings from each one as we go forward."