Lions lose some of theirteethin Cape Town
SOUTH AFRICA 27 LIONS 9
Boklash – that’s what the Lions suffered in a bruising Cape Town encounter.
The fired-up South Africans levelled the Test series, setting up a mouthwatering finale next Saturday, through two tries in the second half – a period in which the Lions failed to add to Dan Biggar’s three first-half penalties.
Coach Warren Gatland admitted: “We were happy at half-time but in the second half we didn’t get in there, really.
“We got no momentum, no real opportunity to play, nothing at all from kick returns whether it was us or them and that was disappointing, and were giving away some penalties.”
The Boks, who contested each and every breakdown, put in a performance full of power and passion, perhaps too much of the latter as this was a niggly game littered with foul play and outbreaks of “handbags”.
Put it this way, both halves actually took over an hour due to incessant reviews of various bits of skulduggery.
And, who knows, maybe coach Rassie Erasmus’s bizarre hour-long midweek video rant complaining about biased refereeing in the first Test had the desired effect and rattled referee Ben O’keefe?
The Kiwi official could – and I would argue should – have red-carded Boks wing Cheslin Kolbe for dangerously taking out Connor Murray in mid-air.
That would have seen the Lions play with an extra man from the 25th minute but instead he went to the sinbin.
Which is where Faf de Klerk and Bongi Mbonambi should have gone in the run-up to half-time for a pair of no-arms tackles. O’keefe, though, oddly decided no foul play had been committed.
Asked about the Kolbe decision, Gatland said he was “not going to comment on the referee’s decisions” but did add it “didn’t look good from where I was”.
The ref also controversially ruled that Lukhanyo Am had grounded the ball after de Klerk prodded it through the Lions’ cover for South Africa’s second try when it could be argued he was never in control of it.
There was no dubiety about their first try, though, Handre Pollard deciding to bypass the Lions’ admirably solid defence by kicking to the corner where Makazole Mapimpi pocketed it and rounded Stuart Hogg to score.
The Lions, who actually had the first man yellow-carded, wing Duhan van der Merwe taking a first-half rest after stupidly lashing out at Kolbe with the boot, were simply second-best in every department.
They looked subdued, getting little out of a series of Garryowens hoisted into the Cape Town sky by Biggar, and making little ground with their carrying.
As the second half progressed, the Springboks began to dominate the aerial battle and the Lions’ discipline deserted them, allowing Pollard to add five penalties to his conversion of Am’s try.
One masterstroke by Erasmus saw Lood de Jager come on just before the hour mark, meaning they now had three locks in the lineout, turning that set-piece into a source of secure possession.
The Lions, in contrast, barely fired a shot and only threatened the Boks’ whitewash once, just before half-time, when great work by Boks skipper Siya Kolisa meant Robbie Henshaw couldn’t ground the ball from Murray’s chip.
Gatland rolled the dice on the hour when he switched his half-backs, Owen Farrell and Ali Price coming into the fray, but nothing could halt the Boks juggernaut.
Too many Lions were below-par. Wing Anthony Watson racked up more handling errors than touches of the ball, and while the Boks’ bench amplified their threat, the tourists’ replacements added little.
Gatland now has some serious thinking to do before next week’s winnertakes-all clash.
SOUTH AFRICA – Le Roux; Kolbe, Am, de Allende, Mapimpi (Willemse 67); Pollard, de Klerk (Jantjies 63); Kitshoff (Nyakane 60), Mbonambi (Marx 57), Malherbe (Kock 57), Etzebeth, Mostert, Kolisi (Capt.)(van Staden 73), du Toit (Smith 22), Wiese (de Jager 56). LIONS – Hogg; Watson, Harris (Daly 62), Henshaw, van der Merwe; Biggar (Farrell 58), Murray (Price 58); Vunipola (Sutherland 57), Cowan-dickie (Owens 57), Furlong (Sickler 57), Itoje, Jones (Capt.), Lawes (Beirne 70), Curry, Conan (Faletau 60).