No shame in close-call defeat to Springboks

South Africa 28
Lions 25

June 27th, 2009, Pretoria

A seventh successive test match defeat for the Lions, but there was no shame in this one. They put their bodies on the line heroically, played with verve and intelligence and, as they had to do against the most abrasive test side on the planet, fought the good fight. Alas, this made the taste of a series-deciding loss all the more bitter.

A 25-all draw would perhaps have been the fairest outcome and would have at least ensured they could salvage the series in Johannesburg next Saturday. They'll all have memories of great friendships and great rugby for ever more, but the likes of Rob Kearney, Brian O'Driscoll, Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips, Simon Shaw, Adam Jones, Gethin Jenkins, David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip did not deserve to come away also with a shared sense of desolation.

Sport throws up epic collisions of this scale only occasionally, and a packed Loftus Versfeld furnace, uncommonly split close to 50:50 in terms of support, throbbed from first minute to last.

And, it has to be said, sport also rarely throws up games of such savagery and brutality. Meeting physical fire with fire, the effort took its toll and the tourists were cruelly beaten by a penalty from fully 53.7m by the home replacement outhalf Morne Steyn with the last kick.

The Lions will rue not putting more daylight between themselves and the Boks when vastly superior in the first half. All five changes to the Lions line-up were vindicated, although this will only make them regret some of their selections for the first test. Nothing encapsulated their improved forward play more than the seismic moment nearing the end of the first quarter when the Boks forced a five-metre scrum. The home crowd scented and bayed for blood, but their pack were shunted back and their frontrow were penalised for popping.

How the Lions fans roared, and tighthead Adam Jones’s mop has never been patted so much.

They'd been helped on their way by Schalk Burger eye-gouging Luke Fitzgerald scarcely 21 seconds in and being binned on 32 seconds. Burger should have been red carded, although referee Christophe Berdos could only go on Bryce Lawrence's "at least a yellow" recommendation.

Stephen Jones, who was also superb and kicked the first of five penalties from five as well as a drop goal, opened the scoring, and then converted a well-taken try by Kearney after the outhalf's sumptuous, one-handed offload took out Bryan Habana.

Jones would extend the lead to 16-8 at the break, but that was scant reward for their multi-phase attacking and probing.

Critically, the Boks stayed in touch thanks to a well-worked set-piece try when Fourie du Preez drew Wallace at the tail of a lineout and deftly put blindside winger JP Pietersen through a gap which Fitzgerald perhaps should have filled.

Forest of bodies
Burger also returned to do what he was picked for, namely stiffen the midfield, and though Roberts and O'Driscoll again carried well, it was into a forest of bodies in a huge sacrificial effort. But the Boks were wiser to the threat second time round, and the Lions perhaps overplayed this card.

In the cruellest cut, the physicality took its toll as, first, both props departed in quick succession at the start of the second period, and then both centres inside the final quarter. Although Jones extended the lead to 19-8 just past the hour, critically too the Boks were defensively stronger, whereas another Lions defensive blip allowed Pierre Spies and du Preez to work Habana through a gap created by Jaque Fourie's run at Roberts (amid hints of obstruction) which the groggy O'Driscoll couldn't fill.

The great man, never better than on this tour, had put his body on the line once too often with a thunderous hit on Danie Rossouw which effectively knocked them both out, and the Boks definitely came off better from that. Whereas Ronan O'Gara and Shane Williams replaced the centres, leading to a makeshift midfield of Stephen Jones and Tommy Bowe, Rossouw was replaced by Heinrich Brussow, who should never have been dropped for Burger. He immediately began winning important turnovers. Andries Bekker added bulk in place of Bakkies Botha's role as agent provocateur, and Morne Steyn rectified Ruan Pienaar's wayward kicking game.

Ultimately, Lions intensity levels dropped whereas the Boks upped theirs. The Boks also outscored the Lions by three tries to one and left eight kickable points behind. The uncontested scrums and less rhythmic, more staccato nature of the second half (there were 23 minutes of time added on to the 80) also helped the Boks. The Habana try came from an uncontested scrum and the killer Fourie try after Spies had run through O’Gara.

As the ball returned across the Boks line, one watched in suspended horror as the groggy O’Gara couldn’t push up in the defensive line, then covered across but was flattened again by Fourie’s barnstorming run to the corner.

To complete his horror cameo, O’Gara then inadvertently conceded the match-winning penalty by taking out an airborne du Preez from his own kick ahead.

Consoling words from Ugo Monye, Gordon D'Arcy, Donncha O'Callaghan, Keith Earls and Wallace, in turn, as the cameras clicked cruelly, were one of the day's abiding images. He'll be the scapegoat, but there should be no blame game for there was no shame in this defeat.