Boks’ Kicks Win It

 I think everyone who watches rugby knew what to expect from South Africa following last week’s defeat by the Lions. The winning formula that secured the Rugby World Cup when they dismantled England would surely be coming. They would be fierce and combative up front and they would employ the box kick and chase game to apply maximum pressure. The defence would rush up and stifle any attempts by the opposition to make inroads on the gain line. The only question was how much would they have improved from the previous week?

I have to admit that we all felt a little apprehensive with overtones of pessimism as we waited for the match to start. It would be nice if the Lions had an anthem before the game, we thought, as the South African team belted out theirs. Perhaps some clever soul could come up with a rap sampling the four nations’ anthems. My guess at the final score was 22-6 to the Springboks but was that just Welsh pessimism?

The match started fairly well for the Lions and the first half though ferocious was nip and tuck with the Lions having a narrow lead at 6-9. The home side were certainly better than the previous week with the Lions’ scrum beginning to creak and the Springboks' physicality giving them an edge in the contact areas. There had been a yellow card for each side with van der Merwe dismissed for a rather Norman Hunteresque trip on Kolbe and Kolbe dismissed for tackling Murray in the air. Either or both of these could have been red cards.

On the positive side, the Lions did cross the South African but the TMO ruled that Henshaw had not grounded the ball. He certainly should have but it was hard to see conclusively whether he had done so. The Springboks had suffered a blow with the loss the influential du Toit through injury.

Half time arrived and I did feel that the Lions seemed to be hanging on and the home side were gaining confidence. The Springboks forwards must have been practising against the elephants in the Kruger National Park as they looked to be taking control. The South African kicking game was playing havoc with a shaky Lions’ back three. It was a replay of the World Cup final.

The second half started with a try from the Springboks as Mapimpi caught a kick ahead and left the cover defence for dead. The conversion was missed but the home side were in front 11-9 and the Lions needed to react and quickly.

Try as the tourists might, they could not escape the stranglehold that the Springboks were exerting on the match. The Lion’s scrum was overpowered and the lineout was under pressure following the introduction of the giant de Jager from the South African bench. The home side bossed the break down and that meant a rash of penalties being conceded. All this on top of the back three spilling far too many high kicks. We looked on despair – perhaps the replacements could turn the tide?

Matters became worse when Am touched down a clever kick from de Klerk – or did he? The TMO and Nigel Owens on the TV had a field day with this. I have to say it looked like a try to me but others in the room disagreed.  The try was awarded and duly converted by Pollard.  Even though the score was 18-9 and twenty minutes to go there seemed to be no way back for the Lions.

The last quarter saw the Springboks in complete control. They continued to follow their game plan to the letter and resisted any temptation to run the ball. The Lions didn’t have any ball to run even if they had wanted to with their replacements making negligible impact. The outcome of the Springboks power game was more penalties and Pollard helped himself to three more as they moved to an emphatic victory with the final score 27-9.

This defeat was comprehensive and squares the series at 1-1 with the deciding test next week. All the momentum is with South Africa and it is a huge task for the Lions to find a way to fight back. After yesterday, surely no one can be considered certain of retaining their place in the test squad. We can be certain that South Africa will continue with the same game plan so the challenge is how to negate it. We can rest assured that the Springboks will probably bring a rhinoceros or two to beef up their training sessions when the elephants begin to tire.

So, what to do? The back three needs looking at as the fielding of the inevitable high kicks has to improve. Surely this means Liam Williams has to start along with Josh Adams at the expense of Hogg and van der Merwe. I think we might need to go to six forwards and two backs on the bench to give us more options in what will be a huge forward confrontation. If we did this there are implications on the midfield selection in the backs. It would be madness to go into this decider without two highly rated goal kickers….. Ouch! my brain hurts already.

I think I will leave this to the men who matter but I can see straight away how difficult a selection this is going to be. In simplistic terms, we need to field the biggest strongest pack we have plus sufficient fire power to bring on from the bench. We need to be able to defuse the South African high kicks and take every three points on offer and, yes, it would be nice to score a try or two. All this against the world champions in their own backyard. Good luck Warren!

Can the Lions do it? Of course they can - but they will have to play out of their skins.

Come on the Lions!