Lions urging French ref to get tough on time-wasting

WARREN GATLAND is pleading with the officials to allow his British and Irish Lions side to play their rugby in Saturday’s series decider against South Africa.

Last weekend’s 27-9 second-Test defeat in Cape Town proved an ugly spectacle as Springboks-instigated stoppages saw both halves last for more than a hour.

A week after South Africa counterpart Rassie Erasmus’ hour-long rant over his first-Test grievances, Gatland will urge Frenchman Mathieu Raynal to keep Saturday’s game moving after captain Alun Wyn Jones’ complaints to Ben O’Keeffe last weekend seemed to fall on deaf ears.

‘We definitely want to play more rugby and we just didn’t get that opportunity in the second half,’ said Gatland, who has made six changes to his side. ‘At every scrum there was an injury slowing the game down and there were something like 14 minutes of TMO time in the game.

‘We want to keep the tempo of the game up, to get the ball in and out of scrums, to get the ball in quickly at lineouts, to play and get a flow. South Africa don’t want to do that. Everything is so

stop-start, it does make it frustrating. I know Alun Wyn Jones was talking to the referee on a number of occasions about keeping it going. We had stud changes, we had TMO decisions, we had the referee stopping the game for cramp.

‘That will be one of the things I talk to the referees about because we can’t have 60-odd-minute halves. We want to see some good rugby and we didn’t see some great rugby played at the weekend.’

Gatland has recalled Ali Price at scrumhalf, promoted Bundee Aki to the midfield and brought the aerial prowess of Liam Williams and Josh Adams into the back three. Maverick Scotland fly-half Finn Russell is on a revamped bench along with Kyle Sinckler, whose citing for biting has been dismissed.