MATCH REPORT: South Africa 26 Lions 21:THE ONE that got away? Assessing this curious roller coaster of a first Test doesn't become much easier with the passage of time, but it's hard not to feel that, in the final analysis, this is where we'll say the Lions lost the series.
That said, you wouldn’t have given them a prayer of even being competitive for the remainder of the tour with about half an hour to go when they trailed 26-7, though quite what the relevance of the subsequent turnaround has for next Saturday’s renewal of hostilities in Pretoria is a moot point.
Basically, the Lions started with the wrong team and the Springboks finished with the wrong team, while the Boks murdered the Lions pack and the Lions shredded the Boks’ backline. But the adage that forwards win matches and backs by how much perhaps applied.
Even when the Lions were facing a humiliation more than a defeat at 26-7 down in the 47th minute, the tourists had played with more variety and attacking intent. The feeling that the Jamie Roberts-Brian O’Driscoll might have the edge on the somewhat rusty Jean de Villiers and defensively suspect Adi Jacobs came spectacularly to fruition. From the moment O’Driscoll steamed on to Roberts’ line break through JP Pietersen and Jacobs in the 23rd minute, to cleverly veer inside, bide his time, take Frans Steyn’s tackle to give Tom Croft the try-scoring offload, they cut them open almost at will.
They look like they’ve played 300 matches together, not three. Roberts’ lines of running, strength in the collision, pace and offloading were the perfect foil to O’Driscoll’s heads-up brilliance; the maestro proving again here that he’s probably a better, more effective player than ever.
So, when the Lions patiently went through the phases, probing the blindside to then give the midfielders more space, or unveiled an impressive catalogue of set moves, they opened up the famed Boks’ blitz defence repeatedly. You just don’t see the kind of carnage created by Roberts and O’Driscoll in frontline rugby any more; much less in an earth-shuddering collision of this magnitude.
Plenty of other theories were turned to dust, mind. The notion that the Boks would be rusty lasted, ooh, all of four minutes; while the one that the Lions might have the better scrum was laughed out of the Absa Stadium about six minutes later.
Helped by one of the Lions’ several botched lineouts, the Boks clearly set about targeting Ugo Monye with kicks in behind him, yielding a scrum from which Ruan Pienaar, Juan Smith and finally, with telling effect, John Smit took passes from Fourie du Preez to take hard, one-off diagonal lines at the Lions defence. Smit went through Tom Croft and Roberts a mite too easily.
Just as ominous was the sight, soon after, of the Beast, local cult hero Tendai Mtawarira, sending poor Phil Vickery back and skywards as the Boks pack began flexing their pecks. Mtawarira, who apparently bench presses 28 stone, did a number on the English warrior, who simply looked like he couldn’t cope with the sheer strength of his 22-year-old foe as this gradually became a mortifying experience for him.
No less than the midfield battle, you just don’t see scrum carnage like this any more either.
The tangible effect would be another three points on the scoreboard, Pienaar missing the chance to make it nine points on the break, but the psychological damage went much further.
It was striking to note that as soon as Adam Jones came on belatedly in the 45th minute, the next scrum suddenly steadied. When Matthew Rees promptly replaced Mears it steadied further still and when Pieter de Villiers took the bizarre decision to take Mtawarira off, the Lions even finished slightly on top in the scrums.
If only the Lions had a maul they could even generate even more space for their potent backs, but not only do they not have one, they couldn’t defend one to save their lives here either.
So when the Boks marched upfield painstakingly like something out of an old war movie three times in succession – starting from inside their own 10-metre line after a stunning touchfinder by Rob Kearney – the Lions’ pack were simply being embarrassed. The thought occurred then that the decision to play Mears, the rangy and relatively anonymous Alun-Wyn Jones and the roving Tom Croft in the same pack had backfired.
To the Lions’ eternal credit, their ability to withstand those punches and virtually dominate the remaining 33 minutes said much for their mental resolve, togetherness and fitness. With the scrum now a reliable platform, back the Lions came, again and again, patiently through the phases, before the halves released the Roberts-O’Driscoll midfield shredding machine. O’Driscoll broke the line and fed Roberts, who was tugged before taking the pass, and with advantage having run its course Mike Phillips just lost control in reaching out for the line.
Roberts made inroads before O’Driscoll, off the recycle, drew defenders onto him and put Croft over again.
When O’Driscoll worked the ball to Roberts, Kearney and finally Monye, Morne Steyn completed a wonderful covering tackle on the Harlequins wing. As when Jean de Villiers somehow managed to get his arm underneath the ball when Monye was also denied in the seventh minute, both times he was carrying the ball in his inside, right hand.
But after Roberts had been held up, Phillips dummied, saw a gap and slipped over. With five minutes to go it was now a one-score game, and conceivably the Lions could have been one kick away from a famous win had Stephen Jones landed one of two penalties in the first quarter.
The Boks were rattled, fumbles by Ricky Januarie and Matfield giving the Lions field position, and Bowe nearly broke clear off an O’Driscoll layoff but as the bodies piled in one more time – from both sides – Bryce Lawrence effectively ended the contest by singling out a Lion. Whether missing a knock-on by Steyn, a dangerous tackle on the airborne Kearney, his patience as the wilting Boks’ infringed repeatedly, his idea of the advantage law, or in some of his interpretations a the breakdown, Mr Lawrence was profoundly disappointing.
How much the Lions’ comeback was facilitated by Pieter de Villiers removing his pack’s enforcer, fetcher, captain and scrum destroyer as well as his scrumhalf lynchpin prematurely is open to debate. It looked like an insulting show of triumphalism.
Plenty of lessons to be learned then for next week’s pivotal, potentially decisive second Test for both sides. Mightily expensive ones for the Lions though.
Match details
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: Smit try Pienaar con 7-0; 11: Pienaar pen 10-0; 21: Steyn pen 13-0; 23: Croft try, S Jones con 13-7; 33: Pienaar pen 16-7; 36: Pienaar pen 19-7; (half-time 19-7); 47: Brussow try, Pienaar con 26-7; 68: Croft try, S Jones con 26-14; 75: Phillips try, S Jones con 26-21.
SOUTH AFRICA: F Steyn (Sharks); JP Pietersen (Sharks), A Jacobs (Sharks), J de Villiers (Stormers), B Habana (Bulls); R Pienaar (Sharks), F du Preez (Bulls); T Mtawarira (Sharks), B du Plessis (Sharks), J Smit (Sharks, capt), B Botha (Bulls), V Matfield (Bulls), H Brussow (Cheetahs), J Smith (Cheetahs), P Spies (Bulls). Replacements: D Rossouw (Bulls) for Brussow (52 mins), A Bekker (Stormers) for Botha, J Fourie (Lions) for de Villiers (both 57 mins), G Steenkamp (Bulls) for Mtawarira, D Carstens (Sharks) for Smit, A Bekker (Stormers) for Botha (both 65 min), M Steyn (Bulls) for Pienaar (65-75 mins) and for Jacobs (75 mins), R Januarie (Stormers) for du Preez (69 mins), Smit for Carstens (77 mins).
LIONS: L Byrne (Ospreys/Wales); T Bowe (Ospreys/Ireland), B O’Driscoll (Leinster/Ireland), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues/Wales), U Monye (Harlequins/England); S Jones (Scarlets/Wales), M Phillips (Ospreys/Wales); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues/Wales), L Mears (Bath/England), P Vickery (Wasps/England), A-W Jones (Ospreys/Wales), P O’Connell (Munster/Ireland, capt), T Croft (Leicester/England), D Wallace (Munster/Ireland), J Heaslip (Leinster/Ireland). Replacements: R Kearney (Leinster/Ireland) for Byrne (38 mins), A Jones (Ospreys/Wales) for Vickery (45 mins), M Rees (Scarlets/Wales) for Mears (50 mins), M Williams (Cardiff Blues/Wales) for Wallace (67 mins). D O’Callaghan (Munster/Ireland) for A-W Jones (75 mins), Not used: H Ellis (Leicester/England), R O’Gara (Munster/Ireland).
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand).
