Bok-lash: Lions set for series decider as Springboks bite back
The British and Irish Lions will collide with South Africa in a series decider next Saturday after the Springboks emerged emphatic 27-9 winners from an ugly second Test at Cape Town Stadium.
A grisly spectacle disfigured by repeated stoppages saw the Lions build a deserved 9-6 interval lead through three Dan Biggar penalties, but having been largely bossed until that point the world champions began to snarl in the second half.
Makazole Mapimpi crossed to propel them back in front and then Lukhanyo Am touched down as they capitalised on excellent kicks from Handre Pollard and Faf De Klerk.
A feature of the match was the world champions’ growing control of the air as the Lions struggled to deal with the barrage of kicks raining down on them, while up-front the home pack muscled up in a dominant 40 minutes.
Unlike in the first Test that was lost 22-17, the ‘Bomb Squad’ had the desired impact from the bench, and the size of the win as the Springboks powered over the finishing line with their forwards rampant suggests they were undercooked for the series opener seven days earlier.
A major outbreak of coronavirus severely disrupted their build-up but by full-time of this rematch they had rediscovered their swagger as the Lions fell away at an alarming rate.
South Africa were lucky to see Cheslin Kolbe avoid a red card after he took Conor Murray out in the air, while a high tackle by De Klerk, also on Murray, was given only brief attention by the officials.
Otherwise it was a fine performance by referee Ben O’Keeffe, who was subject to unprecedented scrutiny after Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus released an extraordinary hour-long critique of the officiating in the first Test.
O’Keeffe was calm and composed throughout a fractious match that was constantly interrupted by reviews on a huge number of incidents, with the first half alone lasting over an hour.
In a sign of the conflict to come, tempers flared as early as the third minute with Alun Wyn Jones and Eben Etzebeth locking horns after a South African maul was halted just short of the line.
O’Keeffe seized the opportunity to assert his authority to the captains and a cagey opening was under way with Pollard and Biggar exchanging penalties as the packs tore into each other.
Kolbe came off worse in a head-on head collision with Tom Curry that he instigated, fortunately escaping any sanction, as the Lions continued to edge a ferocious opening quarter.
Biggar was on target with a second penalty and the bad news began to pile up for the Springboks as Pollard missed the posts and 2019 world player of the year Pieter-Steph Du Toit departed with a shoulder injury sustained during an earlier tackle by Duhan Van Der Merwe.
It was a contentious challenge that ended Du Toit’s match but Van Der Merwe did not escape O’Keeffe’s attention for a trip on Kolbe that was punished with a yellow card.
The advantage was rapidly wiped out, however, when Kolbe took Murray out in the air and was also sent to the sin-bin where he could reflect on his luck that the card was not red.
PLAYER RATINGS: The Lions faced a roll reversal in Cape Town, fading before a second-half Bok onslaught.
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Courtney Lawes and Maro Itoje pinched home ball on successive line-outs as the absence of Du Toit began to bite at the set-piece.
The Lions were now on top as they camped on South Africa’s line, applying pressure with the line-out and then scrum before Robbie Henshaw was unable to ground the ball over the line because of Siya Kolisi’s intervention after grabbing Murray’s kick.
Biggar’s boot gave the tourists the lead for the first time but the second half had barely begun when Pollard hoisted a kick to the wing for Mapimpi to collect and score.
Momentum was growing behind South Africa and a powerful maul swept them forwards before De Klerk grubbered for Am to score, although he did not appear to have full control of the ball.
It was foot on the throat time as Pollard rifled over two penalties and the Lions looked a spent force, unable to match the Springboks’ physicality.
Comments on RugbyPass
While Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
126 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
126 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
126 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
126 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to comments