A recent High Court judgement will now force game farmers to let lions roam free for 2 years before they may be hunted. The British and Irish Lions were walking proudly off our shores for 12 years before confronting a stong and physical Springbok Team!
The series has been decided and instead of gracefully accepting defeat, players and management have gone on a whining spree and criticized everything accept their own inability to perform on the pitch!
I have watched the 2nd test four times since yesterday afternoon – and do not agree that this Test was one that they “did not deserve to lose…”.
The First Test was a much better performance from the Lions – even though the Springboks quickly piled up a commanding lead – the Lions failed to score three times when losing the ball on the try line. There were a few misses at goal as well which could have changed the result of that game. The errors made by the early replacement of key players – a mistake to which Coach De Villiers confessed – nearly had disastrous consequences!! After the match the British and Irish Lions Management said that the Boks played “very little” rugby.
The 2nd Test saw a flawless kicking performance from the British and Irish Lions. The Bokke missed a conversion and 3 penalties and should have kicked for goal on 2 more occasions. The Bok team had a lineout on the Lions try line and a scrum 5 metres from the try line. The Springboks scored 3 tries to the 1 of the British and Irish Lions! The British and Irish Lions never created other try scoring opportunities close to the Springbok try line – apart from the few phases that lead to the drop goal by Jones!
After the match one of the best players from the British and Irish Lions, scrumhalf Mike Phillips, complained about Burger not getting a red card…as if they can only win against 14 Bokke! Perhaps Mike Phillips could be given a video recording of the match and see that Burger only made 3 tackles in 53 minutes of the game, conceded 2 penalties which provided them with 6 points on a platter and made no turnovers or notable carries/ contributions.
We can only hope that the British and Irish Lions will accept defeat by the World Champions. As they say “a good loser is a regular loser” – perhaps the 3 losses in a row to the Springboks [counting the last test 1997] will make them regular losers…and good losers!
Perhaps a loss by the Springboks in the 3rd test might not be such a bad thing – then the youngsters following the game can listen to a true captain, Johan Smit, delivering a message of good sportsmanship in defeat!!