It was in 1997 that the great Ian McGeechan exhorted his Lions side by telling them to beware the wounded Springbok. Twenty-four years on, the time has come to see what a wounded Lion looks like.
These British & Irish Lions are 1-1 in this series and 80 minutes from one of the greatest achievements of their sporting lives. Possibly the greatest. And yet they haven’t delivered anything approaching an optimum performance. Their greatest passage of play was the lineout drive from which they scored their only try of the series, in the first Test.
The bubble in which they have been residing, on their golf resort outside Hermanus, is so tight that many of them probably aren’t aware of the outside noise, this broad assessment of the facts that tells us that the Springboks built up such a head of steam in the second half of the second Test that their momentum cannot be stopped.
Within the camp, the interpretation of last Saturday is comparatively simple: they know they didn’t do themselves justice. And they have not come close yet to producing the sum of their parts.
“There’s certainly more to come,” Gregor Townsend, the attack coach, said yesterday.
Advertisement
“That’s the plan this weekend — to really showcase what we’re about,” Dan Biggar, the fly half, said.
The Lions have won two of the four halves of rugby played thus far in the two Tests, yet, as Townsend said: “There’s more in us than those halves of rugby.”
As we approach this momentous final match of what has been a long and fractious series, this is the reason to believe that the Lions may take something away from it.
Their wounds have been inflicted by the Springboks, who have contained them so well that we haven’t really seen what these Lions can really do. That is what the Springboks are so good at.
And the thing about being professional athletes is the Lions don’t know — or, more to the point, don’t really care — which way the wind is blowing. They will arrive at the stadium convinced that they can pull this off. Confident? “Yeah, very confident,” Biggar said.
Advertisement
Just a day away, yesterday, here was more context to the occasion. On this Covid tour, the Lions have been meticulous about not moaning about the deprivations they have faced. Many of them have been away from their homes and their families for eight weeks.
On a normal tour, the streets would be heaving with atmosphere, the Lions would be sniffing it at every corner, they would have friends and family visiting them in their hotel. Outrageous as it sounds, they would even have been able to go out for a coffee together. They haven’t whinged about this because it would only have been counterproductive.
Yesterday, though, Townsend touched upon it. “I don’t think you can understand the challenges the players have gone through,” he said. This will, in part, fuel their motivation today, this fear of having made so much of a sacrifice and then being forced to go home without any reward for it.
So much of this series has been dominated by the sound of conflict, by the toxicity generated by Rassie Erasmus, the SA Rugby director of rugby, and the consequential focus on the officials and their ability to do their jobs under unprecedented pressure. This barely touches the players though.
As Biggar said yesterday, the running commentary to the series has been irrelevant to them. “If I’m honest, we wouldn’t have given a monkey’s, if we’d come out on the right side of the scoreboard last weekend.”
Advertisement
It may not be a completely vain hope that this deciding match could be a kind of redemption Test. The rugby is unlikely to be much prettier, though, the Springboks will still be intent on reducing the pace of the game to a dirge and there is no chance of any kind of reduction in the ferocity of the exchanges.
I am reminded, here, of the extraordinary photograph taken at the end of the last Lions series, at Eden Park four years ago. The two sides had just completed three Test matches, at the end of which they could still not be separated, they were then framed for a picture, all the players mingling, some jerseys already exchanged, arms around the shoulders of those they had just been playing against.
It was an image that spoke of a respect that had been mutually earned.
Of course it helped that the series ended in a draw, but you wonder what the 2021 version of this picture might look like today.
For the Lions to win respect, they have to match the Springboks where it hurts. They know that; that has been the starting point ever since they landed in South Africa.
Advertisement
The way that the second Test finished suggests that this may be their struggle.
However, because of injuries, the Springbok resources are now stretched. Lood de Jager was their hero who came off the bench to turn the game last week; this week, though, he has been forced into the starting XV, it is highly unlikely that he will be able to go the distance and the Springboks do not have the same resources to turn to.
Injuries have also deprived them of the relentlessly influential Faf de Klerk, though they have a real dynamo in the No 9 shirt instead, in Cobus Reinach, recently of Northampton Saints. The most intriguing Springbok selection is Morné Steyn, the 37-year-old fly half, on the bench.
There was no specific fly-half cover last week, which makes you wonder, this week, about the fitness of Handre Pollard. Pollard and De Klerk are two world-class half backs; if the Springboks are forced to play without the pair of them, that is a considerable loss.
The trick for the Lions, which they failed to pull off last week, is to keep the game moving and thus stress the fitness of De Jager, Pollard et al. “We have to control the game more by moving South Africa around,” Townsend said, “draining them of energy whenever we can.”
Advertisement
To that end, they will need some more favourable officiating. “Yes, we have made the point that we don’t want unnecessary stoppages,” Townsend said about the meeting the Lions coaches had with Mathieu Raynal, the referee.
The Lions also realise that they need to do something more than just wait for the Springboks to run out of steam. That plan didn’t quite work last time anyway. “We know we’ve got to fire a few more shots,” Biggar said.
We should probably not get too excited about this, as Biggar suggested when he added: “We don’t want to be forced suddenly to rip up what’s been good for us.” However, the point has been made: the Lions exited the Cape Town Stadium last week pondering what might have been; they do not intend to leave the entire series wondering.
Far better to have those words of McGeechan, back in 1997, ringing in their ears: “Finish it off. And be special for the rest of your lives.”
South Africa v British & Irish Lions
Third Test, Cape Town Today, 5pm TV Sky Sports Radio talkSPORT
How they line up
Lions
L Williams
J Adams
R Henshaw
B Aki
D van der Merwe
D Biggar
A Price
W Jones
K Owens
T Furlong,
M Itoje
A Wyn Jones (c)
C Lawes
T Curry
J Conan
Replacements L Cowan-Dickie, M Vunipola, K Sinckler, A Beard, S Simmonds, C Murray, F Russell, E Daly.
South Africa
W Le Roux
C Kolbe
L Am
D De Allende
M Mapimpi
H Pollard
C Reinach
S Kitshoff
B Mbonambi
F Malherbe
E Etzebeth
L De Jager
S Kolisi (c)
F Mostert
J Wiese
Replacements M Marx, T Nyakane, V Koch, M van Staden, K Smith, H Jantjies, M Steyn, D Willemse.
