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IF THIS has been a bad dream of a season, for fans and players, Warren Gatland’s Lions had a recurring nightmare in Cape Town.

Yes, the same one from 12 years ago when Morne Steyn comes off the bench to kick a match-winning penalty as he did to Paul O’Connell’s tourists back in 2009. That is the same 37-year-old Steyn who has not played a Test match for five years – can he retire gracefully now?

For the Lions it was a kick through the posts and a kick in the guts they hardly deserved after fronting up to the world champions for the full 80.

There were plenty of heroes in red but in the end it was the villain in green who delivered the killer blow.

This one will be hard for Gatland (above) and his men to take – they can hold their heads high after putting it all out there at the end of a season that looked like it would never end. Covid meant this tour was like no other and the Lions nearly gave it the shot in the arm it needed.

Cooped up in a bubble for eight weeks, they were warned not to play their ‘get out of jail’ card and when they played it, after losing last week, they couldn’t come up trumps.

Another desperate affair looked on the cards but the Lions didn’t read the blueprint.

And Hallelujah, we finally had some rugby after the dross that the two teams served up over the last couple of weeks.

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here different needed – and versions a Scot provided most of the excitement from the Lions’ point of view.

Finn Russell (below) coming on after 11 minutes was not part of the script, but he played his part in making the game a million times more watchable than the previous two slugfests.

It was a shot in the arm for the game itself and the sport that needed it badly.

It was the Lions side who played most of the rugby whilst the Boks, with director of rugby Rassie Erasmus (below) back on water-bottle duty, tried to slow down the game at every opportunity.

After all they’ve been through the Lions did not deserve this.

This tour has been on a knife edge ever since the Lions joined up in Jersey eight weeks ago.

Covid and civil unrest have ravaged South Africa and every day we were waiting for news the boys were heading home and the series was off.

It is a sporting miracle they got to the business end of the trip.

The verbals have been off the scale this series and even on the eve of this match, the Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick could not resist poking the bear one last time when he invited the tourists to play touch rugby.

Gatland the gambler chose not to play some big cards when he announced his team on Tuesday.

No Jamie George, for the third week in a row, no Taulupe Faletau, no Anthony Watson and no Owen Farrell.

And when Dan Biggar went off we wondered what Farrell was doing in the stands and not on the bench.

But Russell with his slick hands and willingness to test the areas of the Bok defence that had not been stressed before provided the answer. It was not enough but at least this season is over.