The final score flattered the Lions and failed to reflect a game that was dominated by the Springboks. The Lions were flat, unconvincing and short of ideas against a Springboks side that wasn't exactly bursting with inspiration.
I know it was always going to be a physical game, which was one of the reasons to select Stephen Jones instead of O Gara, but that turned out to be the wrong choice, with Jones missing at least two vital kicks.
It wasn't until the final fifteen minutes that the Lions rallied and showed a hint of what they can do, but that was too late against the Springboks. Let's not forget that they are the world champions after all, while the Lions are a crew cobbled together from four dfferent unions, who never play together.
For most of the game, the Lions lacked punch and imagination, with little enough interplay among the backs or aggression from the forwards. They were unrtain in the lineout and scrappy at the breakdown.
It was a poor enough performance, but maybe McGeechan and his backroom team will take lessons from it, and perhaps we'll see a diferent Lions attitude next Saturday. Or perhaps not.
Maybe McGeechan should call up Andy Lee to add a bit of punch to the team. The Limerick southpaw dropped Oleg Fedotovs on the Wladimir Klitschko/ Ruslan Chagaev undercard at the Veltins Arena (home of Bundesliga side Schalke 04) tonight en route to a points win.
I reckon the only reason the Lions got back into the game was because SA started making substitutions.
The hosts deserved their win.
This was no, er, am, Boks the robbers.
I think the Lions were robbed.
The Boks won 12 points directly from Phil Vickery being completely useless and popping up, not binding and generally destroying scrums handing penalties away to a kicker on home turf. It still took McGeechan 50 minutes to replace him.
Jones might as well have stayed at home. His kicking was awful and his tactical play was solely responsible for the Lions flat play and allowing the Boks to control the tempo.. Ok, the lions forwards were under pressure but smarter play by their No 10 could have made a smarter game out of it, and as in the game against Ireland in the Six Nations, when the time came to step up to the plate, Jones just didnt have it in him.
Add the six points Jones missed, subtract the 12 that Vickery gave away.
Lions: 27
Boks: 14
The Lions set peice play let them down. In open play the Lions had the run of the Boks without a doubt. In fact, while I'm thinking about it, and it pains me to bring it up, but bar some harsh refereeing (including tommy bowe getting pinged for not releasing when the ball was clearly in the loose, subtract another three from the Boks tally) I think that the Lions did an awful lot better than they are getting credit for.
That just my two cents. But I genuinely dont think they deserve the slating they are getting.
Oh, and someone tell Mike Philips that trying to take three steps before feeding your Number 10 will have a flanker on top of you like a fucking truck before you know what hit you.
Vickery was indeed very poor and should have been taken off sooner. However his opposite number was scrummaging illegally. The tighthead prop is the conerstone of the whole team, if he doesn't perform the team scrambles for quality possession as was the case yesterday. Wallace couldn't get go forward ball and will be dropped as a result of Vickerys poor dispaly and McGeechans indecision. Croft to my maind was not in the game yet scored 2 tries,c'est la vie. Heaslip was nowhere to be seen, and I would play Fitzgerald instead of Moyne. The biggest disappointment for me was O'Connell. He played very poorly and was a mere spectator during the rolling maul, he showed very little leadership and if he wasn't captain he would be dropped. It just shows hoe badly Croft, Flannery and O'Leary are missed.
Good point about Wallace, he made one outstanding break but could have been much better.
FT – 13-13 versus the Emerging Springboks, Earls crosses the line for Lions – but hosts snatch a draw with a late try and con.
Not great. Bad decision to withdraw ROG. Worse decision to replace Bull.