Lions v South Africa - first test

Although the game isn't over, the story of the game can really be written - and thanks to the laptop I can type AND watch the rest of it.

The game hinged around Mears and Vickery having a shocker, in particular Vickery who got mauled by The Beast and thus the scrum turned into a source of endless penalties for the Boks. Vickery off, Jones on, and the penalties basically stopped. Mears actually didn't do a bad job of his hooker duties when allowed to, but that extra bit he brings, of ball-carrying and off-loading around the park was never there. It's hard to be sure why, because when Rees came on he did get the ball and get to run it around the park. He's not the off-loader that Mears is, but he got the ball far more often.

Just as I was to write about the awesome defence of the Boks too, Steyn disposed Monye as he should have crossed the try line to bring it to 26-19 with a kick to come. It's 26-14 still, and yet if the Lions had scored all the tries they made that would have made it 33-26 to the Lions with the kick to come. Someone (Pienar?) made a spectacular save in the first half on Monye. Botha knocked the ball out of Phillips' hand as he was stretching for the line. Steyn bounced Monye... three tries that without heroic defence would have been scored.

The rustiness that I, and a lot of people thought might make this a win for the Lions, is suddenly starting to show in the last 10 minutes though. Apparently the boks had been training 25 minutes on, 25 off against their emerging counterparts. But 40 on, 10 off, 30 on at test match intensity seems to have run the tank empty.

The prospects might be grim (assuming the Lions don't score again in the last 3 minutes - another chance gone on an interception this time) for the series, but the Lions are not entirely without hope. The Lions backs made line breaks, opened holes, moved the ball around nicely. Monye just dropped it... and Bowe did too in fairness. Roberts and BOD were awesome and destroyed their opponents regularly. With Jones and Rees the scrum was much better, and provided the platform for the Lions' third try. My team selection shows Vickery and Mears, but for next week, I'm thinking an all Welsh front-row. I really didn't think I'd be writing that for a Lions tour. Jenkins was great too, how often have you seen a prop tackle Habana in open play?

The Lions need to finish better, and give away fewer penalties, and they have a chance. The Boks have to play for 80 minutes. Interesting times.