Lions lose - ROG to blame!

Ah, the irony.

In my last post I talked about ROG being a safe choice, Hook being a more risky one if needed, but that I'd go for Hook. If only Geech had listened to me!

O'Gara came on to fill a hole left by the departure of Roberts and O'Driscoll. He's not half the centre that either of them is, he's not half the centre that Hook is, and Hook isn't half the centre that Roberts and BOD are. What happens? ROG misses a tackle, the boks score a try to pull level. Would Hook have made it? Maybe not, but he's a lot more likely to have made it than ROG you'd have thought. Would the boks have scored a try anyway? Maybe, but we'll never know. So, the boks draw level.

Then, in a moment of madness he kicks the ball, chases it rather than kicks it out AND fouls the bok player in the air. Steyn steps up, on his home field remember, and casually slots a 55m penalty and the boks win. Whilst the first one can be argued, the second can't really. It was ROG's fault from start to end.

As The Rugby Paper headline screams "Lions in heartbreak as O'Gara goes ga-ga." Very true.

Next week, I think a bigger margin for the boks. I was thinking that the Lions might sneak that win, but Roberts (broken thumb), BOD (possible concussion), Jenkins (fractured eye socket), D. Jones (dislocated shoulder) are all out of contention it seems. That's the attacking and a big chunk of the defending force of the backs gone, and two-thirds of the front row that turned the scrum from a disaster 8 days ago into a strong positive yesterday. Some of that credit goes to Shaw too I'm sure, but next week we might see how Vickery + Shaw stand up against The Beast, and I think it might be a painful area for the Lions again. Vickery and Sheridan will not contribute around the park in the same way as Jenkins and Jones - in fairness they've never really had to, but they just don't. Vickery is better than Sheridan at it, but the Welsh props are in a different league.

I hope that the boks didn't target those players, I don't think they play that dirty, but it is curious that 4 of the best 6 players on the Lions side are injured and probably can't play next week.

I've also read criticism of S. Jones for a quiet game. I have to wonder what game they were watching. He kicked from hand and tee beautifully, and his kicking from hand was almost always the right choice both of time to kick and positioning of the kick. The rest of what he did could be dismissed as "he handed the ball to Roberts and BOD" and he also very occasionally ran at the line. That would ignore that lovely off-load for Kearney's try, and the fact that he regularly put BOD, Roberts or both into space at speed. When you have possibly the best current centre partnership in the world outside you, as a 10 surely your job falls into "we need to kick" or "I need to pass to them" unless you have the magic and majesty of a Carter at his best and the skill, speed and confidence to use them both as decoys and go yourself. S. Jones isn't a Carter. Even Giteau isn't a Carter. Good tactical decisions and good passing from a number 10 on a world stage - letting the Lions build their lead after all, quite comfortably - can you really say he had a bad game?

I think Kearney was unlucky not to get MOTM. He got mine. I don't remember a mistake all match and having him catch everything and dominate the air must have given everyone else (except ROG) huge confidence. I still think he's not as good as a fully fit Byrne, but yesterday he was immense. Shaw? Obviously the commentators saw something I didn't. I don't think he had a bad game, but I don't think he was that good either. Oh well.