The British & Irish Lions have been told they are welcome to “play touch rugby” in the third Test against South Africa on Saturday, with the Springboks hitting back at claims they have adopted time-wasting tactics to take the series to a decider.
The Lions again stand on the verge of history with a second shot at a first series win in South Africa for 24 years, having failed to take an unassailable 2-0 lead last week.
Warren Gatland is once more bidding to become the first coach to lead the touring side in unbeaten series against all three South Hemisphere opposition while success would also place the captain, Alun Wyn Jones, among the list of Lions immortals and ensure the squad share a jackpot of around £2.5m with tour fees and £20,000 bonuses factored in.
After the second Test defeat Gatland has spoken with this week’s referee, Mathieu Raynal, and his assistants, urging them to keep an eye out for the Springboks’ attempts to slow the ball down, listing instigating injury, cramp and stud change breaks as methods he believes have been employed to date.
The Lions want to keep a high tempo rather than get bogged down in a stop-start affair and Courtney Lawes on Friday warned the tourists to avoid any off-the-ball altercations. Last week Jones clashed with Eben Etzebeth while there were also flare-ups involving Stuart Hogg and Willie le Roux as well as Maro Itoje and Damian de Allende.
South Africa were adamant on Friday that they did not employ tactics to slow the game down deliberately, however, and again responded to suggestions their suffocating style of play is boring. “We don’t go into a game intentionally trying to slow things down and, if the British & Irish Lions want to play touch rugby, that would be nice for us and they’re more than welcome to do so,” said the assistant coach Mzwandile Stick. “We’re not going to decide what they must do and also they’re not going to tell us how to play the game.
“If the TMO calls and the refs need more time according to what they see on the screen, that’s got nothing to do with us. When the ball is in play all our players give their best and I don’t recall any of our players doing anything to slow the ball down. People must understand that the TMO is part of the game and, if it takes two minutes to make a decision, unfortunately that’s not in our control.
“The best we can do as a Springboks team … we control the ball in play, we control the tempo and how we want to play the game. If they want to lift the tempo up, that is their plan; if we want to slow the game down and make it boring, we’ll do that, as other people are saying ‘boring rugby’.”
Despite the Springboks’ protestations Lawes is expecting more of the same from South Africa on Saturday and spoke of the need to keep cool heads in the face of provocation. “It’s going to be tough and there needs to be a conscious effort to stay out of that dog fight and niggle because I imagine that’s what they’re going to want to bring again,” he said.
“We need to make a conscious effort to leave it alone and get back to what we want to do, which is trying to bring tempo to the game. They can throw the handbags around as much as they like as long as we can get that ball out and play some rugby.
“We can’t get too caught up in the niggle and scrapping because it just slows down the game and it doesn’t really help us. We like a high-tempo game – we are a fit team, we want to run around, we want the ball in hand, so we need to try and speed the game up as much as we can. If we can do that they are going to struggle to keep up with us and it affects their scrum and maul as well. They came with a clear gameplan last weekend and that was to slow the game down. Their strategy paid off – they slowed it down. When they are not tired they are going to scrum well and, because they are big, strong men, they are going to maul well.”
The Lions have scored a solitary try in the two Tests so far and managed just one in the earlier tour match against South Africa A. As a result, four changes have been made to the backline with Ali Price returning at scrum-half, Bundee Aki coming into midfield, Liam Williams getting the nod at full-back and Josh Adams – who has scored eight tries so far on tour – selected on the wing.
“We have the ability to score tries. We have the ability to put South Africa under pressure which can open up opportunities later in the game or can lead to three points, six points,” the Lions attack coach, Gregor Townsend, said. “We have got to create more, that’s for sure. If you create opportunities, whether that comes through errors in the defence that can get you line breaks that lead to tries, that gives you a better chance to win the game.”
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