WHAT a strange match that first Test was. South Africa completely outplayed the Lions for most of the first hour, and were cruising to a comfortable win, a humiliating defeat for the Lions. Yet they had been quite remarkably unambitious. Though Ruan Pienaar had kicked beautifully, pinning the Lions back time and again, the Springboks had done little with their advantage, content apparently to let the Lions destroy themselves. Despite this, it was the Lions who had shown enterprise and a willing
The Springboks' superiority was emphasised by their second try. First one driving maul took them 20 yards or more up the field. Awarded a penalty, they chose to pop it into touch, and then a second driving maul resulted in a try. The Lions' forwards
had been thoroughly subdued. There was bitter comedy here, for it was the northern hemisphere nations who had so vigorously objected to the Experimental Law which permitted the maul to be pulled down, while the southern hemisphere ones approved it. Now it was as if the Springboks were making a point of saying: "this is the driving maul you wanted back: how do you like it now, gentlemen?"
At this moment, most of us probably feared that the Lions were in for a 40 points slaughtering, which would leave the tour in ruins and Ian McGeechan's reputation as a master-coach in not much better condition. But now arrogance took over. Peter de Villiers, the Springboks coach, removed half his dominant pack – saving them for the second Test today – and also his scrum half du Preez. Instead of turning the screw on the Lions, the Springboks relaxed. They lost momentum and, when Pienaar went off with a blood injury, they lost shape too. The Lions responded nobly, took their chance and dominated the last quarter of the game. In the end they came close to victory, so close indeed that, in what looked like a realisation of his folly, the Springbok coach sent captain John Smit back on to the field to shore things up.
Even so, the Lions might still have won. With 77 minutes on the clock, they were awarded a very kickable penalty. Had Martin Johnson been leading the side I suspect he would have chosen to go for the goal, in the knowledge that it would have left them only two points behind, and that they would still have had time to work their way back into Springbok territory and line up a winning drop goal, Jonny Wilkinson Sydney 2005 style. But Paul O'Connell opted to go for a try and instructed Stephen Jones to put the ball into touch. He muffed the kick, and instead of a line-out a few yards from the try-line, the Lions had to attack from the 22. It was too much for them. Jones, I reckon, is lucky to have kept his place; Ronan O'Gara would surely have given the Lions a better chance of getting the score that would have won the match – and he might well have kicked the two penalties Jones missed in the first half.
So to this afternoon's match, with the Lions in better shape and better heart than seemed possible after the first hour last week. They know their backs are capable of scoring tries, if, that is, Jamie Roberts and Brian O'Driscoll play as well as they did in Durban. That may not be so easy – for Roberts anyway. He had a tremendous game last week breaching the defence almost every time he had the ball. Today, however, Schalk Burger is back in the South African side, and this makes a difference. When England played Wales in the Spring, they had Joe Worsley stand out from line-outs and rucks with instructions to nail Roberts. Burger may now be asked to do the same job. If so, the Lions may have to use Roberts as a decoy at least as often as making him the ball-carrier.
The real question, however, is whether the re-cast Lions scrum can match the Springboks at full strength. If they can't, the Lions backs will again be living on scraps of possession, just as they were for the first hour last week. It's unlikely too that Peter de Villiers will be as ready to conclude that the match is won and that he can withdraw half his pack and scrum-half as early as he did then. Complacency or arrogance nearly deprived him of victory, and the last stages of the game were surely too close for South African comfort.
Actually, they shouldn't even have been quite so close, for Mike Phillips' try should have been disallowed, the gap for it being created by a Lion who blocked a South African forward, shoving him out of the way and preventing him from making a tackle. It was blatant obstruction, and instead of conceding a try, South Africa should have had a penalty.
Still, the turnaround in the last 20 minutes means that the Lions enter today's game no more than bruised by the first encounter, with hope still alive and a chance of winning – all the more so because Brian O'Driscoll is playing his best rugby for years, and with him in his present form anything is possible. But the forwards have to do their job first, a lot better than last week.
