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It’s humble pie time for those of us who predicted a 3 – 0 Bokwash of the British and Irish Lions in the series against South Africa.
The Lions were outplayed in the first hour of the first Test but could easily have won the match with a surge of point-scoring at the end of the match. The second Test could easily have been won or at least drawn until Ronan O’Gara, his head swathed in bandages and his face bloodied, had his brain explosion and gave away a fateful penalty. And the third Test was won comfortably, even with a player sin-binned for 10 minutes.
If O’Gara had just kicked the ball out the Lions would have drawn the series. And under, say, the system used to decide the winner of the Dave Gallaher trophy between France and New Zealand, the Lions would have won the series.
The Lions scored 74 point in the series: South Africa scored 63. The Lions scored seven tries: South Africa scored five. The Lions won one Test: South Africa won two.
As Stuart Barnes pointed out, these statistics contrast strongly with those of the 1997 series when Ian McGeechan coached a Lions side captained by Martin Johnson to a 2 – 1 series victory. In that series, though, South Africa scored 68 points, the Lions scored 55. South Africa scored nine tries, the Lions scored three.
Barnes also pointed out that McGeechan returned the side to the Lions touring traditions that were lost with Sir Clive Woodward’s obsessive and secretive management style 2005, and to a certain extent on the 2001 tour of Australia when the team was split with some England renegades. The Lions shared rooms, in the old tradition, throughout the tour of South Africa. They visited townships. They mingled with their supporters.
McGeechan was able to create conditions where players from the four Home Unions bonded together into a new and important entity (for them): the British and Irish Lions.
Even more importantly, McGeechan and his coaching staff (Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards, particularly) were able to devise tactics and put in systems the players could adjust to that exposed the Springboks as a bash-and-bully side that is occasionally illuminated by brilliant play from Brian Habana and J.P.Pietersen.
Without Habana and Pietersen, the Springboks looked to be bereft of attacking options. We had the ludicrous and revealing situation late in the Test, with the Springboks needing 17 points to take the lead, of Francois Steyn trying a drop kick (which had the length and was only slightly off-target) from outside his own 10m mark.
The Springboks scrum, too, was brought to earth (literally) by some hard-shouldered shoving by the Lions. The lineout dominance of Victor Matfield was nullified. The Springbok driving mauls were handled easily. And when Fourie du Preez had to leave the field, there was no intelligence or great skill in the back play.
Before the series some experts were claiming that this is the greatest of all the Springboks sides. It is a fine side, with a Rugby World Cup title and a Tri-Nations title to its credit.
But greatness demands total domination of oppositions. This side has never achieved this, and did not against the Lions, with the exception of the first hour of play in the Test series.
At the beginning of the tour some of the British journalists (including the Usual Suspect) bagged the New Zealand and Australian rugby communities by talking up how wonderful it was to be, at last, in a real rugby country which appreciated the Lions.
This wild-eyed, antagonistic attempt to score points against the dreaded Antipodeans was exposed throughout the tour as the complaints of the same British journalists about the organisation of the tour and its atmospherics started to be written up.
Eddie Butler, the TV commentator and rugby writer for The Guardian, and a former captain of Wales, in one of his final columns wrote about how the Lions were ignored by the South African public, rather than being made welcome: how the Lions were mocked by the Springboks coach Peter de Villiers for being poor losers: and how local crowds did not turn up to the early matches.
There were complaints by other journalists about the schedule, with the Lions being forced to be at sea-level the week before their Test at altitude.The schedule was agreed to by the Lions management. The fact that Test players were held back from their provincial sides by the Springboks management was also a source of complaint.
Once again, and this is the beauty of a Lions tour, the supporters were much better rugby-people and visitors than many of the journalists covering the tour.
The series was an epic series. Most of the best rugby was played by the Lions.
The Springboks were resilient and occasionally brilliant, in their best tradition. The Lions brand has been restored, even though the side has yet to win a series in the 21st century.
At the end of the Test, the third epic match in a row, one of my first thoughts was: Bring on the Lions in Australia in 2013.