THE Lions will he greatly relieved to make their escape from wintry rainswept East London today with a less than compelling victory over Border to their credit that owed everything to the dogged character of their forwards.

Rob Wainwright, who was captain for the day, saved the Lions the embarrassment of going down to one of South Africa's least distinguished provincial sides, scoring a late try that secured the win after Border had held a threatening lead for half an hour.

The price of victory included the loss of Scott Gibbs, a potential choice for the Test series, with an ankle injury that will be X rayed at a Cape Town hospital when the tourists arrive in that city today. It is thought that Gibbs will be out of action for at least a fortnight. The scrum half Austin Healey also hurt his ankle, but is expected to recover by the weekend.

"Border raised their game and they were hard to beat, "admitted Fran Cotton, the Lions manager. "We had to dig deep in very difficult conditions. I felt sorry for the boys who were playing their first game for the Lions. Border did play some decent football but fortunately we pulled things together in the last 15 minutes and did what we needed to win."

Even so this error strewn performance - which can only be partly justified by drenching rain and mud - will have come as a severe disappointment to the Lions management whose work with the players over the past two and a half weeks appears to have yielded precious little coordination.

No doubt the Lions will draw comfort from the simple fact that they have now won two matches, yet there were ominous signs that they have technical shortcomings that will be hard to put right quickly.

For long periods the Lions made strenuous efforts to keep the ball in hand and create movement on the sodden pitch which made slick passing near impossible. Healey, who made his Lions debut, struggled to develop a positive working rhythm with the outhalf Paul Grayson who lacked control and kicked badly in his first game for nearly three months after injury.

Gibbs and his midfield player Allan Bateman supplied most of the Lions engine power behind the scum. The longer the game went on the more difficult the Lions found it - to develop the expansive play which brought them a superbly executed second minute try by the former rugby league wing John Bentley.

When Grayson put in a delicate chip down the left flank the ball was swiftly recycled to Gibbs who broke a tackle before unloading to the overlapping Stimpson. The England full back slipped a neat pass to Bentley who scored in the right corner.

Instead of going on to produce three quarter movement of similar fluency and precision, the Lions got bogged down in inconclusive back row moves which gained Neil Back and Eric Miller only a few metres at a time without causing Border undue anxiety.

Possession in the tight and the loose was so patchy that the forwards opted for a safety first policy of driving through the middle in an attempt to cut down on handling errors. Grayson's failure to kick goals he would normally slot home with ease meant a total of 13 points went begging, a shortfall that served to motivate Border further.

Greg Miller, the Border out half, landed a 30 metre penalty goal and thereafter the score remained at 3-5 for half an hour as the hosts defended their line resolutely.

Five minutes before the break the Lions nudged a Border scrum back towards the posts and when the move suddenly broke up the hooker Mark Regan snaffled the ball and was briskly driven over by his loose forwards for a touchdown on the right, which put the Lions 10-3 in front.

However, a minute before the break a midfield error by Grayson allowed the Border centre Greg Hechter to flick up an improvised pass to the wing Andre Claasen, who raced away to score on the left.

Two minutes into the second half Miller put Border 11-10 in front with a short penalty goal for offside, and with 15 minutes left the fly half extended that lead with another penalty goal from 25 metres after Rowntree failed to release.

Eight minutes from the end Wainwright, who showed remarkable commitment throughout, got the Lions off the hook when he was driven over for a merited try in the right corner.

Stimpson, who took over the kicking duties from Grayson, failed with the conversion attempt - and subsequently with a penalty - but in injury time the Newcastle player finally got on the scoreboard with a thumping penalty goal from 25 metres. The Lions were delighted to hear the final whistle.