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No one expected the British and Irish Lions to play with the panache and skill expected to win a Test series from their first tour match but this performance against the Royal XV was abysmal. The Lions were more rugby pussy cats than roaring, dangerous beasts.
The first surprise in the match was the small crowd, officially 12,352. The reason given is that Pretoria is not too far down the road and the fans were there for a real rugby match.
The second surprise was the appalling play from the Lions for the first hour of play.
With only 13 minutes of play left, the Royal XV led the Lions 25 – 13. This was virtually game over, if (and it is the ifs of sport that make it such an intriguing business) the second division players from the high veldt had only taken their time to work through to a victory.
Instead from the kick-off Shane Byrne (the best of the Lions along with his captain Paul O’Connell) put in a high ball which was allowed to bounce. Byrne got his foot to the ball twice with speculative kick-throughs. The ball sat up for him finally to grab and plant across the tryline for a crucial try.
The Lions then missed try after try as the Royals XV began to kick poorly and fall off tackles.
The Lions began to use the rolling maul which can no longer be dragged down. The referee, Marius Jonker allowed the mauls to stop and start several times. Inevitably, the Lions scored. And then at the end there was a breakout with Ronan O’Gara scuttling away to score between the posts.
In the end the scoreline 37 – 25 looks respectable. But against second rate opposition which was allowed to look first rate, the Lions could only score four tries. They conceded three tries.
The general consensus of the British rugby writers is that the Lions got their (inevitable?) bad tour match out of their system. ‘All we know for sure at the moment is the Lions can finish a game extremely well,’ insists The Sunday Times rugby writer Stephen Jones.
This brought a sardonic retort from one of his readers: ‘Marvellous match. Huge fan turn out, top performance from England’s and Ireland’s best. Bring on the Bulls.’
You can’t take too much out of an opening match, of course.
But the Lions pack, especially the bigger players looked to be heavy-footed around the field. Perhaps the altitude got to them early.
The back line on the day, which had only one youngster Keith Earls (who had a shocker), was loaded with stars. But only Byrne really enhanced his reputation.
The Lions will surely get much better. But on the evidence of their opening match and the superb play of the Bulls down the road at Pretoria, the Lions will have to get much better than just much better to stand any chance in the Test series.
The Bulls (who will form the brawn and brain of the Springboks, surely) played like rampaging bulls.
The Lions, for most of their match, played like pussy cats.