REGRETS, THEY’LL have a few, but, if only on Saturday at Ellis Park, they were too few to mention. This was the Lions’ redemption day, for the management, for Paul O’Connell, for Phil Vickery, Shane Williams and a host of others who will never wear the famous red jersey again. No unwanted first series whitewash in South Africa, no record nine matches without a win. The naysayers will have to do without those sticks.

Instead, they equalled the Lions’ record 28-9 win over South Africa in Pretoria, set by the legends of ’74 (when the try was worth four points), and at the Boks’ Ellis Park citadel, the ground where Nelson Mandela wore the jersey when they won the World Cup in 1995.

The performance and victory was a tribute to the togetherness and harmony engendered by the management, as well as to their coaching skills in the final week.

And right up there with those factors was the captaincy of O’Connell.

It would have been so easy for the squad to go “off-tour” with the series lost and hard-earned holidays due. “We wallowed for a few days, and then towards the end of the week we rallied,” said O’Connell. The effort to re-focus on this pride-saving dead rubber intensified when the captain called a meeting of the team leaders on Friday evening.

They talked about the Lions jersey, about some players winning their first Test cap and others their last.

“That was emotional,” admitted Shane Williams. “There were a lot of harsh words said, a lot of honesty, and that’s Paul. He doesn’t bully you about anything and he tells you how it is. I thought Paul was going to cry – one of the toughest guys I’ve ever played against and with,” said Williams with a smile.

“It was just emotions really, what it meant to him. Paul said that it was an honour to captain a great bunch of guys, and I agree with him. From the start we’ve been a good family, we’ve stuck by each other and I think it was reflected on the field today. And Paul was an inspiration to anyone who wants to be captain. Not only does he talk the talk, he walks the walk.”

O’Connell admitted captaining the Lions was an even bigger job than he had anticipated. “Playing with your province and your country, you’re in a comfort zone. You know the people very well; you’ve had your ups and downs. You come over here and you really don’t know each other that well, and to become a team that can beat the world champions in the back yard you have to build relationships and the senior players have to contribute a lot to that.”

“It’s very hard to figure out what captaincy would have been like, but I must say I’ve enjoyed it. The last three weeks have been tough pressure-wise, that’s what international sport is about and it’s been an enjoyable experience.”

While O’Connell would have had to lean heavily on lieutenants such as Brian O’Driscoll, Martyn Williams and Phil Vickery – for whom Saturday was a bit of redemption – O’Connell’s innate honesty as a man and player shone through in that tough week.

After the game, McGeechan had spoken of how O’Connell epitomised what a Lions captain should be in the way he pulled the players together, and yesterday, after ruling out the possibility of coaching the Lions in Australia in four years, he added: “He’s done a fantastic job. He’s been a great captain and he’s played every single minute of the three Tests. You can see what he’s put in, he’s been very good with the players and he’s leaned on the other experienced players in setting the highest standards. He’s been an outstanding captain.”

And the players spoke of Warren Gatland’s words in the dressingroom before kick-off. In the days building up to the game, Gatland had upped the ante by telling them all the hard work and performances on tour would effectively count for nothing if they suffered a series whitewash. He re-affirmed this message, and reminded them this would be the last time many of them would wear the jersey, and the last time they all would do so together.

Immediately after the full-time whistle O’Connell admitted he started wondering whether this win might merely add to the Lions’ sense of regret.

“This week was one of the toughest weeks of our careers when really it should have been one of the most exciting. It could have been a very long summer if we hadn’t won today, but guys dug deep. I think we could be looking at ‘what ifs?’ for a long time, but that’s sport.”

Given he also soldiered through Clive Woodward’s New Zealand misadventure, O’Connell said: “It would have been tough to look at some of those ’74 and ’97 guys in the eye with six caps and no wins, so today is a good day for a lot of us.”