YOU DIDN'T have to be in the dressing-room at Kings Park to know that the boys would be sickened by this – but I was and they were. This was one that got away. It was a fantastic opportunity to go ahead in the series and really pile the pressure on top of the Springboks, but it slipped through our fingers.
The scrum. I'm guessing everybody is going to be talking about the referee's interpretation. I can't make a hard and fast call on what was going on between Phil Vickery and the Beast (Tendai Mtawarira], since I was up in the stand and didn't get to
see too many replays. What I'll say is this: I saw one replay of a scrum that went down and was adjudged by the ref to have been pulled down by Vicks. I saw the replay – and Vicks didn't pull it down.
The Beast's arm hits the floor first, followed by Vicks' and the penalty was given against us. It was harsh. It was, in my book, wrong. I don't know about all of the other ones but I know we hardly got a scrum penalty all day and there were hardly any re-sets. Maybe the ref knows the intricacies of propping so well that he can call it absolutely bang-on first time around, but I have to say he doesn't like he was a prop. And I also have to say that I've scrummaged behind these guys for many, many years and when the thing collapses, half the time I couldn't tell you why. Scrum penalties are very hard to call.
Anyway, I'm not having a go at the ref, I just think that Vicks will be unjustly crucified now and from what I've seen I'm wondering if the Beast was boxing clever with some of the stuff he was doing. We'll all be looking at that, today I guess.
We should have won the game, shouldn't we? How many times were we held up just over their line? Three, maybe. That's a lot of points we came within inches of getting. A lot of what ifs to torment us for the night. When Crofty scored his second try with about 13 minutes to go that really should have been the win secured.
In fairness to the Springboks, some of the defence they put in to keep us a fraction away from a score was fantastic. The tackle Jean de Villiers made on Ugo Monye early in the game was unbelievable. Ugo was about 2cm away from the touch down and De Villiers denied him. There's "what might have been" written large all over this Test.
There was no way we deserved to be all those points behind in the first place. The Boks got a soft try early on. Our fault. Then they got a load of penalties. More soft points. How many of them they deserved, I don't know.
They got a huge maul going early in the second half and that brought them a try. Mauls like that are incredibly hard to stop. They had 12 men in and the technique was excellent. It's not about power it's about momentum and control and fair play, they did well. That made it 26-7. The boys were in a bad place at that stage.
The thing about it was that we were doing well when we had the ball. Drico (Brian O'Driscoll] and Jamie Roberts were finding gaps all over the place. We had loads of line breaks and knew we could get in behind them. And that's what started happening in the last 15 minutes. The two lads in the centre caused all sorts of mayhem. South Africa were blowing hard at that stage. They were in trouble.
They were making substitutions all over the place. They looked really, really tired. When Crofty made it 26-14 I really thought we had a chance. When Mike Phillips made it 26-21 all the momentum was ours. We just ran out of time. We gave ourselves too much ground to make up. Another five minutes and we might have won. Probably would have won. I think that's the reason the boys were so disappointed afterwards. They could smell victory in the closing stages. I'm proud of them, though.
I don't expect to figure next Saturday. That's just me being realistic. Paulie is a certainty and Alun-Wyn Jones and Donncha O'Callaghan did nothing to warrant getting dropped. Adam Jones, Matthew Rees and Rob Kearney did their prospect no harm at all, though. They played very well when they came on.
We've a game on Tuesday. I've been on antibiotics all week, but I reckon my bug will have cleared by then. I've also got a massive bruise on my hip from when Euan Murray head-butted me in last week's game. Euan's going home on Monday and the boys will miss him. They've really enjoyed his company.
I'd say the Beast was glad to see him hobbling around on crutches. The last time those two met was at Murrayfield and Euan did a job on him. He's disappointed to be leaving but philosophical, I think.
I'm not holding my breath about selection for Saturday but I'll get on with it regardless. The boys have a big job on their hands now, but we're capable of turning this around. We scored three tries to two and could have scored three more. We should be confident of our chances in Pretoria. We have nothing to fear.
