Scots can be invited to party next time

Andy NICOL

WHAT a weird ending that was. When the final whistle was blown, I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad and neither did the other 48,000 fans packed into Eden Park. It was a surreal moment amid almost complete silence as we computed that the match and, hence, the series had ended in a draw. Would there be extra-time? A cumulative score over the three games? Would it be decided on tries scored? Surely we hadn’t travelled 12,000 miles to play a Test series and there wasn’t going to be a winner? But that’s what happened and we’ve had to get used to it. Having slept on it, I’m much happier with the situation. The flatness we all felt on Saturday night in Auckland has changed to satisfaction at a great job done by the Lions. Six months ago, no one gave them a chance. The general consensus was the All Blacks would win the series 3-0. To be honest, I felt the Lions would be competitive but fall short in all three Tests. Now that the dust has settled, I’d say a drawn series is an outstanding result for the Lions. Over the three games, the All Blacks were the better team, creating more opportunities and receiving more kickable penalties. The fact they butchered some of them meant the Lions were always able to stay in touch. The reality is the tourists were only leading for two and a half minutes out of 240 in the whole Test series, which shows how happy we should be with the draw. Saturday’s game had everything. The first half was breathless with both teams throwing everything at each other. I was very pleased the Lions were only 12-6 down at the break because the All Blacks should have scored a couple more tries which might have ended the game as a contest. But I felt the home side would get more nervous the tighter the game remained. The Lions scrambled in defence just to stay in it and then drew level with less than ten minutes to go. There’s no doubt they benefited from Romain Poite’s decision to go to the TMO after awarding a penalty to New Zealand with two minutes left on the clock. It was a huge call but it was the wrong one. It was a penalty. I know there’s been a lot of apathy in Scotland for this tour due to the lack of Scots involved. Stuart Hogg would have played in the Tests if he’d remained fit but the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Scottish fans down here have been a big part of the amazing legion who have turned New Zealand red for three weeks. I’d hope every Scottish player and, indeed, coach, would look on this tour as motivation to do all they can to make South Africa in 2021. The age and quality of our players should make this a reality. Hogg, Greig Laidlaw, Tommy Seymour (inset) and, briefly, Finn Russell and Allan Dell have all experienced what it means to be on a Lions tour and I’d expect double these numbers from Scotland in four years’ time.