A famous victory
Your author watched last night’s rugby First Test between South Africa and the British & Irish Lions at home with the family including my “other half”, who was slightly less delighted than I was to see Scotland’s Stuart Hogg make his first Lions Test debut at last.
As it happens, my enjoyment of the Lions’ 22-17 victory – probably a fitting result after a tense game – was significantly blunted by the absence of a crowd due to the Covid crisis: somehow, for me, a Lions Test match without its raucous hordes of accompanying touring fans feels weird and diminished.
Both teams had justified causes for being “under-cooked” on the day due to lack of match practice and in truth the Springboks suffered more in this respect.
They came out in typical robust form and dominated both play and the scoreboard (12-3) to half-time, leaving the visitors with plenty to do if they were going to mount any sort of challenge – let alone prevail – during the second stanza.
I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall inside the Lions changing room during the interval to witness Warren Gatland’s tactical switches and personnel changes as they happened because the Lions emerged for the second half a very different team.
Their kicking ahead and follow-up chasing was immediately tightened, their on-field decision-making improved and their always full-bloodied commitment became more dynamic.
Everyone played their part for the Lions but – a late choice at Number 6, Courtney Lawes stood out for his impact from the first whistle.
Lock Mario Itoje, my man of the match, became ever-more influential as the game went on – he was central to everything the Lions achieved.
Eliot Daly had one of his poorer days at 13 but I wouldn’t drop him because he is such a classy all-round footballer.
Also worth a mention is Ken Owens, the veteran Welsh hooker, who mounted a conspicuous performance when he came on in the second half, if anything eclipsing that of the starting Luke Cowan-Dickie.
At fly half Dan Biggar had a good outing despite his lack of game time. He left the field groggily midway through the second half and failed his “HIA” (head injury assessment) but hopefully he’ll be fit enough to play in Game 2 next weekend.
From that point the Lions’ “game management” was working perfectly – Owen Farrell (not long on as a substitute centre) moved seamlessly to fly half and took over the goal-kicking with 100% success.
The Springboks can count themselves unlucky because they had a couple of second half potential tries denied by what I thought were 50:50 referee/TMO decisions which, had they gone the other way, would not have raised complaints.
Arguably, the pre-match hoo-hah about a South African being appointed as the TMO official because the original Kiwi appointed couldn’t make the trip to due Covid restrictions happily became a complete damp squib. There were no “home town” decisions dished out here.
First Test victories on Lions tours are as rare as hens’ teeth so this one was very welcome and will remain long in the memory, not least for the Lazarus-like return of Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones to the second row after dislocating his shoulder less than a month ago in a warm-up match at Murrayfield against Japan and being rules out of the tour.
However, anyone who fondly imagines that the series is now effectively all over bar the shouting will be in for a rude awakening.
The Boks will come back with renewed vigour next weekend. By then they’ll also have “sorted” one or two player selections and the second-half disciplinary issues which yesterday let the Lions back into the game.
As for the Lions, their bonded “team spirit” did as much as anything else to get them “over the line” last night.
They need to get their “A team” front row forwards on from the start in Game 2 and also in the meantime attend to their “back three” positioning – at least two try “near misses” by the Boks in yesterday’s second half were caused by “nobody being at home” when well-directed midfield kicks were “dinked” over the Lions first line of defence.
This series will definitely not be over until the fat lady sings.
