Lions v Southern Kings

The management squad may have said they weren't going to decide until today, but yesterday's run proved why there are dirt-trackers and test players. Not that being a Lions' dirt-tracker is an insult in any way shape or form - selection for the All Blacks might be tougher, but that's probably the only selection that is.

This tour, however, the gulf between the two sides seems larger that I remember in years gone by. In the test squad, assuming (not very radically) that my predicted test XV is pretty much the right one - might not be Fitzgerald, but the rest look about right - the players and the combinations have all clicked. Roberts and o'Driscoll in the centres in particular, have never played together but have a partnership that looks like it has been together for years. Martyn Williams is used to linking with Roberts for club and country, Phillips and S. Jones for country and is still, by far, the best fetcher that the Lions have taken with them.

The Kings played a tough game, borderline illegally rough in fact, and knocked the Lions about. Not only Murray and Hook who might not play again on tour having left the field injured, but they largely dominated the tackle and the breakdown with that physical presence. The Lions didn't seem able to react to this, not helped by having no real fetcher - Worsley at open side is still a jammer not a fetcher, Hines is a decent blind side, but he's in the muscular fast-lock, slow-blind-side category (a bit like Chabal) rather than a fetcher. This meant the Lions couldn't really clear the rucks at speed, and didn't, and so the Kings could dominate.

In part because of that the Lions failed to shine. No clean ball made the backs look laboured and slow, and the forwards never supplied fast ball. The cross-field kick became a good option, but O'Gara's precision from hand hasn't quite been there all tour, and wasn't there again today, despite his precision from the tee. Monye's try was, I think, a try - but I wouldn't have been shocked if that decision had gone the other way, and with it the match. Darcy and Flutey don't have the presence of Roberts and O'Driscoll, so the Kings, despite being somewhat limited in attack, had a slow 7, a weak-tackling 10, and small, creative 12 and 13 to run at as they liked. Avoid Powell, outflank Worsley and make metres easily - even if as the defence organises this becomes harder to repeat.

Saturday's run out should look like a very different side, but so will their opponents. Prediction? I still think the Boks are underdone and will struggle against good combinations and game-fit players. Lions to win, by about 10.