South Africa 9 British and Irish Lions 28: The Lions didn't so much avert a first-ever whitewash in South Africa - an indignity they scarcely deserved to share with the misadventure to New Zealand four years ago - as make a statement.
It will not affect the outcome of the series but this handsome win will have tasted sweet all the same and ensured a winning endnote to a ten-month season and six-week tour before their well-earned summer holidays.
In the process the Lions recorded only their second win in Ellis Park and first since 1955 and also averted what would have been an unwanted record of nine tests without a win.
They fronted up again physically, especially in the collisions, with their defensive maul not conceding an inch and their scrum gaining the upper hand. Their line-out was again excellent, where Paul O’Connell had a towering game, and the performance was given its cutting edge by the all-round excellence, work-rate and effectiveness of Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Rikki Flutey.
Shane Williams rediscovered his mojo with two first-half tries, Ugo Monye adding an intercept try in the second half, but the little Welsh winger’s Man-of-the-Match award was a little excessive. By rights, it should have been Heaslip, who was quite magnificent.
They didn’t celebrate unduly, but the Lions’ emphatic win certainly diluted the Springboks’ contentment. Their back-up talent is clearly not nearly as strong as Pieter de Villiers would like to believe and their backplay was especially error prone, littered as it was with poor execution.
All the Lions’ squad made a point of going over to applaud when John Smit was presented with the trophy for winning the series. Even then, the chants were of “Li-ons, Li-ons”, before the two squads went on laps of honour. This, at least, was the Lions’ day.
The Springboks management and non-playing members of the squad wore white arm bands with the word ‘justice’ written on them, in protest at the two-week ban imposed on lock Bakkies Botha, which was upheld on appeal.
Once again, in a damning indictment of the SARFU marketing and pricing policies, there were swathes of empty seats, particularly in the upper tiers of Ellis Park. Deemed the fortress of Springbok rugby, it was hardly the furnace which such a game might have anticipated.
Indeed, the 20,000 or so Lions fans effectively gave the occasion the atmosphere of a neutral venue and they were given every encouragement to make themselves heard by the sheer verve of their team’s start.
Four times in one passage of play, with Martyn Williams prominent, the Lions offloaded the ball in a clear attempt to keep the ball off the floor. Although Stephen Jones missed his first, 45 metre penalty, the ground trembled in anticipation of the game’s first scrum. Up popped Chilliboy Ralapelle - making his first start since mid-April - and Stu Dickinson penalised the Boks at their own put-in for Jones to open the scoring.
Shane Williams sliced his touchfinder from the restart, and when Heaslip was penalised for playing the ball off his feet Morne Steyn levelled.
However, having looked utterly out of sorts, Williams suddenly scored his first try of the tour in his eighth appearance, and he owed a huge thanks to Heaslip. The Irish number eight made a sensational play when carrying strongly and then, not held in the tackle, picked himself and carried on. With a hint of obstruction by Simon Shaw, Heaslip left his chasers for dead, drew full-back Zane Kirchner and brilliantly passed inside for Williams, who had taken a good support line, to round the posts.
Unfortunately, as Stephen Jones lined up the tap-over conversion, the ball fell off its tee and he scooped a hurried left footed drop goal wide. Still, the Lions kept knocking.
Lovely hands by Bowe and Kearney released Shane Williams for another run, but the Welshman’s cross kick found no-one on his wavelength before his second try soon followed, and this time the debt was to Flutey.
Off turnover ball inside half-way, Matthew Rees moved the ball on to Flutey out wide. He had only Williams for support, but chipped Odwa Ndungame and as the ball came down off a high bounce as Kirchner charged at him with intent, Flutey brilliantly flicked the ball over his left shoulder before taking the hit. Taking a good catch low to his left, Williams quickened on to round the posts again.
Bread of Heaven echoed around Ellis Park, but the psychic energy ebbed the other way nearing half-time when Shaw clumsily, and a tad dangerously, dropped his knee into the back of Fourie du Preez as the great scrum-half dived on a loose ball.
The Wasps lock was binned and soon the Boks cleverly, if perhaps obviously, opted to go to the corner in the absence of Shaw - a noted defensive mauler. But they let Johann Muller land on his own in a poorly worked drive and Flutey brought Wynand Olivier’s charge to a shuddering halt in midfield.
Alas, Rob Kearney missed the ensuing penalty and two phases later, with the hooter having sounded, Phil Vickery was penalised for playing the ball off his feet. Inevitably, Morne Steyn landed the penalty to make it 15-6 at the break.
Even though a man still down, the Lions resumed on the offensive again, while Shaw’s imprint on du Preez’s back meant Ruan Pienaar coming on at scrum-half. Bismarck du Plessis was also introduced for Ralapelle.
Kearney came close after a hard line and superb offload by Heaslip. Brussow earned a relieving penalty at the breakdown and a couple more penalties had them going to the corner. Back and forth they went, using the full width of the pitch, but were denied what looked a certain try when Bowe’s covering tackle knocked the ball from Zane Kirchner’s grasp short of the line.
That became a 14-point turnover when Ugo Monye picked off, one-handed, Olivier’s attempted pass to Kirchner just outside his own 22 and not even the flyer Jongi Nokwe could catch him.
A few disaffected boos even ran around the ground when Victor Matfield dropped the ball. This gave way to brief, slightly desperate chants of “Bok-ke, Bok-ke” after Frans Steyn, who replaced the ineffectual Kirchner, returned a poor attacking kick by Stephen Jones with interest, but it soon faded.
John Hayes came on for his Lions test debut at 35 and almost immediately Paul O’Connell, who had another fine game especially in the air, seemed to soar a few metres higher. The Bull also had the satisfaction of helping shunt the Boks pack back at a Lions put-in at his first scrum, a trend which continued to the end in a storming cameo.
Bizarrely, the Lions opted to bring on Harry Ellis rather than James Hook for the injured Flutey, thereby taking Mike Phillips’ hugely physical presence in attack and defence to midfield. This was made all the more curious when Kearney was asked to attempt a penalty from five metres inside his own half. He had the legs, but not the accuracy.
Similarly, Frans Steyn just about had the distance but not the accuracy with a monstrous drop goal attempt from inside his own ten metre line, but Morne Steyn made it 22-9 with a penalty after Martyn Williams was pinged for not releasing.
Stu Dickinson should have reversed the penalty after Heinrich Brussow picked up the Welsh flanker and threw him back down again, but contrary to the officials’ pre-match promises, failed to do so.
The net effect was that it all kicked off again when Phillips attempted to delay Ndungane from getting to the 22 for a drop out, and Brussow threw him to the ground. At least this time, at the behest of assistant referee Christophe Berdos, the Boks were penalised and Stephen Jones made it 25-9.
And then there was the rather pleasing sight of du Plessis being penalised for an utterly needless, if harmless, late charge on Stephen Jones for the Welsh outhalf to make it 28-9.
The Boks were even denied a consolation try for Ndungane when the TMO, Bryce Lawrence, deemed he had put his foot on the touch line before touching down - Bowe again making the covering tackle.
In the end, it was quite comprehensive.
Scoring sequence: 9 minsS Jones pen 0-3; 12 minsM Steyn pen 3-3; 25 minsS Williams try 3-8; 33 minsS Williams try, S Jones con 3-15; 40 (+2 mins)M Steyn pen 6-15; (half-trime 6-15); 54 minsMonye try, S Jones con 6-22; 68 minsM Steyn pen 9-22; 71 minsS Jones pen 9-25; 76 minsS Jones pen 9-28.
South Africa: Z Kirchner (Bulls); O Ndungane (Sharks), J Fourie (Lions), W Olivier (Bulls), J Nokwe (Cheetahs); M Steyn (Bulls), F du Preez (Bulls); T Mtawarira (Sharks), C Ralepelle (Bulls), J Smit (Sharks), J Muller (Sharks), V Matfield (Bulls), H Brussow (Cheetahs), J Smith (Cheetahs), R Kankowski (Sharks). Replacements: F Steyn (Sharks) for Fourie (24-28 mins) and for Kirchner (57 mins), B du Plessis (Sharks) for Ralapelle, R Pienaar (Sharks) for du Preez (both half-time), P Spies (Bulls) for Nokwe (65 mins), G Steenkamp (Bulls) for Mtawarira (71 mins), D Carstens (Sharks) for Smit (71-73 mins). Not used: S Sykes (Sharks).
Lions: R Kearney (Leinster and Ireland); U Monye (Harlequins and England), T Bowe (Ospreys and Ireland), R Flutey (Wasps and England), S Williams (Ospreys and Wales); S Jones (Scarlets and Wales), M Phillips (Ospreys and Wales); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks and England), M Rees (Scarlets and Wales), P Vickery (Wasps and England), S Shaw (Wasps and England), P O'Connell (Munster and Ireland, capt), J Worsley (Wasps and England), M Williams (Cardiff Blues and Wales), J Heaslip (Leinster and Ireland). Replacements: T Croft (Leicester and England) for Worsley (30-35 mins and 66 mins), R Ford (Edinburgh and Scotland) for Rees (37 mins), J Hayes (Munster and Ireland) for Vickery, H Ellis (Leicester and England) for Flutey (both 55 mins), A-W Jones (Ospreys and Wales) for Shaw (67 mins), D Wallace (Munster and Ireland) for M Williams (76 mins). Not used: J Hook (Ospreys and Wales).
Referee: S Dickinson (Australia)
