Here are the thoughts of the Lions head coach, Warren Gatland:
“The players are jumping up and down, they’re pretty happy,” he says. “We’ve got a chance of winning the series, because of the sacrifices these players have made. In the second half, we got a few bounces of the ball, some of our carries were really good.
The frustration in the first half was giving away sloppy penalties, [although] there wasn’t a heck of a lot in it. We didn’t panic, we felt we were very much still in the game. All of the officials did a good job, the referee did very well. I was pleased with them.”
Itoje was, of course, MOTM and he’s giving his reflections on the game:
“These moments don’t come along often, it’s a privilege to wear this jersey and it means a lot. We want to win this series, we want to come back again next week and do the business. We had to tidy up our discipline in the second half and we had the mental fortitude to see it through.”
Updated
Not seen the official Man of the Match yet, but if it’s not Maro Itoje then I would appeal to the Supreme Court immediately.
Alun Wyn Jones (who played the full 80 minutes!) is here:
“I can’t sum up the emotions. But we’ve got a good group here and this is special. It was a tale of two halves really, but we extended out kicking game in the second half and brought more of our own tempo. But there’s another two games to go.”
FINAL SCORE! South Africa 17 - 22 British & Irish Lions
What a difference a half makes
Updated
LIONS HAVE WON THE FIRST TEST!
80 mins. Itoje, who has been imperious once again, hits and rips the ball to win a turnover for the Lions and the ball is out to end the game.
79 mins. Lions fail to claim the restart and the Boks are on the ball on the Lions 10 metre line!
PENALTY! South Africa 17 - 22 Lions (Owen Farrell)
78 mins. Du Toit is offside at the maul and Farrell takes all the time in the world to get his eye in before slotting it, dead-eyed and cold as ice from right of the posts.
Updated
75 mins. The Lions are on the ball and working phases in the South Africa half. Farrell applies some pressure by launching a kick deep into the Bok 22 and all Herschel Jantjies can do is put it into touch just outside his own 22.
Five minutes to go and the Lions in the ascendancy.
73 mins. Tadhg Beirne is on for Courntney Lawes.
The rapid Herschel Jantjies is on for Faf De Klerk.
72 mins. An utter, utter clown car shambles by the Lions as they attempt to mop up and clear a De Klerk punt into their half. The ball spills loose from Williams and Kolbe’s aerial challenge and there is a litany of shovelled crap from every Lions player before eventually it’s over the line for De Allende to dive on it.
Mercifully for the Lions, Kolbe knocked it on in the challenge with Williams to rescue their hideous collective embarassment.
70 mins. Hogg kicks a monster to clear from his own 22 that finds grass behind Kolbe and forces Willemse to snatch a kick away. In the traded possession that follows Ken Owens takes a kick full-on into his bugle and we’ll have a break while some treatment is proffered.
Elton Jantjies on for Pollard for SA.
Liam Williams replaces van der Merwe for the Lions.
68 mins. Sinckler and Vunipola have a big old shove in the scrum and win a penalty for the Lions which Farrell punts into touch for a lineout in Springbok half.
Biggar is off for a head injury check and that’s moved Farrell to outside-half and Daly is back on in the centre.
You keeping up with this?
Updated
66 mins. More Subs
South Africa have brought on Damian Willemse for Le Roux at fullback
Lions:
Kyle Sinckler for Furlong
Owen Farrell for Daly. This will see Farrell go to 12 and Henshaw to 13
Updated
MISSED PENALTY! South Africa 17 - 19 Lions (Handre Pollard)
65 mins. Hamish Watson lifts Le Roux’s legs beyond the horizontal and gives away a penalty just in the Lions half. The Scot is very lucky not to be carded.
He’s even more lucky when Pollard misses the kick.
Updated
64 mins. Subs.
Lions:
Conor Murray for Ali Price
South Africa:
Lood de Jager for Mostert
Rynhardt Elstadt for Kwagga Smith
PENALTY! South Africa 17 - 19 Lions (Dan Biggar)
63 mins. The Lions are ahead for the first time after BIggar slots another penalty after Springbok indiscipline in phased play.
61 mins. Van der Merwe has lost his footing a few times and that brings into focus that the surface in Cape Town is terrible. It looks like someone has been at it with a giant stanley knife and there’s still two and a bit matches to go on this pitch.
60 mins. From a scrum a flat Price pass finds Henshaw in midfield and on the recycled possession Biggar puts a big bomb up that van der Merwe grabs and is free and running. He loses his footing when attempting to sidestep and he’s held up over the line by a huge covering tackle by Etzebeth.
However, this is all irrelevant as the ref has called knock on, seeing Henshaw tapped it forward to his winger as they both challenged for the high ball.
57 mins. Subs for the Lions.
Hamish Watson on for Tom Curry.
Ken Owens for Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Mako Vunipola for Rory Sutherland.
PENALTY! South Africa 17 - 16 Lions (Dan Biggar)
56 mins. There’s a pattern developing here that if the Lions put the ball through phases then South Africa eventually drift offside or infringe at the ruck. After the latest session of this, Dan Biggar slots another one from 30 metres.
Whisper it, but slowly the Lions appear to be getting the measure of this match.
PENALTY! South Africa 17 - 13 Lions (Dan Biggar)
52 mins. From the restart the Lions put half a dozen phases together and Boks infringe, allowing Biggar to slot one from in front.
TRY! South Africa 17 - 10 Lions (Faf De Klerk)
50 mins. South Africa are on the ball and moving the ball left and right through hands. The Lions appear to have decided not to compete in rucks and fan out, the sees more lateral play from the Boks and the tourists appear to be containing, but eventually Mapimpi has it on the left, chips and angled inside kick forward and after some fumbling from Du Toit and Mapimpi near the line Faf De Klerk grabs it to score.
The TMO reviews the fumbles and rightly concludes they both went backwards.
Pollard misses the two points
Updated
NO TRY! South Africa 12 - 10 Lions
46 mins. De Allende pops out of the tackle to Am and he puts his foot through the ball on the left touchline. The ball runs into the in-goal and a chasing Willie Le Roux chases and grounds it. The ref has given it on the field but has asked the TMO to check Le Roux wasn’t in front of Am when he kicked.
It’s obsecenely tight, but the TMO decides the fulback was offside! NO TRY!
That is a very lucky call for the Lions as it in no way looked clear and obvious to me.
TRY! South Africa 12 - 10 Lions (Luke Cowan-Dickie)
44 mins. The ball is claimed in the middle of the lineout before a maul is formed and the ball is secured by Cowan-Dickie at the back. The inevitable shove comes and the Exeter hooker does the necessary to score a crucial try in the context of the game.
Biggar converts.
Now, ladies and gents, the game is on.
Updated
42 mins. An early Lions penalty sees them on the attack in the Bok 22 after a lienout is won cleanly. Lots of one-up carries close to the ruck before Henshaw and then Hogg have a dart before Etzebeth is penalised for a high shot. Biggar spurns the kick and puts in the corner
SECOND HALF!
40 mins. Pollard gets us started up again.
The Boks have changed their front row for the second half:
Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe for Ox Nché, Bongi Mbonambi and Trevor Nyakane
The absolutely outstanding news for the Lions after that howler of a half is that they are only nine points behind, but they must score first in the second half and get a plan together to play some rugby in the South Africa half.
There’s no way to dress up the fact that the Lions are being soundly beaten here. Out-thought in the kicking game, outmuscled in the tight, outmanouvered in defence and out-connived in the ruck.
Gatland should make some changes soon and I’d start with getting Hamish Watson and Tadhg Beirne on immediately as the backrow are having something of a nightmare.
HALF TIME! South Africa 12 - 3 Lions
PEEEEP PEEP! That’s it for the first period.
40+3 mins. Lots of chatter from the Lions about how they will shove for their lives, but Sutherland is penalised for hinging. Pollard rejects the chance to end the half and opts to put it out for a lineout, but on the next possession De Klerk kicks some sense into his team by chipping it into touch.
4o mins. From the restart, the ball is fed to Henshaw who is running free, but a covering tackle from behind by Le Roux dislodges the ball which the Lions centre was criminally carrying in one hand. Knock on and there will be time for the South African scrum to form in their own 22.
MISSED PENALTY! South Africa 12 - 3 Lions (Elliot Daly)
39 mins. A high tackle on Alun Wyn Jones by Mbonambi on halfway and the ball is chucked to Daly who fires his left-foot howitzer at it from a full 60 metres. He has the line bang on but it drops five metres short.
MISSED PENALTY! South Africa 12 - 3 Lions (Dan Biggar)
36 mins. The Boks attack Furlong in the scrum but the Leinster man not only stands strong but does some attacking of his own, forcing the front row to pop up and win a penalty for his team.
Biggar sends it towards the post from just left.. but it stays left and drifts past. Oh dear.
32 mins. For the first time, the Lions have some phases and get some rhythm on the front foot to allow some go forward through some slick passing. Eventually the ball is kicked forward by Anthony Watson but it dribbles into touch. But they come all the way back as advantage was being played for Nyakane not rolling away.
PENALTY! South Africa 12 - 3 Lions (Handre Pollard)
30 mins. ...And as sure as eggs are eggs, he kicks it.
Updated
29 mins. South Africa are slowly squeezing this game through a combination of a relentlessly clever territorial kicking game forcing the Lions to play their clear running plan from deep alloyed with breakdown indiscipline from the tourists.
Yet another penalty is given away at the ruck and Pollard tees it up again...
PENALTY! South Africa 9 - 3 Lions (Handre Pollard)
26 mins. From a South Africa scrum the ball is fed to Kolbe who is stopped in midfield before phased carries start for the home side. Elliot Daly is penalised for playing the ball off his feet in the ruck, it was a borderline one as he appeared to be on the ball before he was bumped over.
Either way, it was given and Pollard slots it from the tee.
23 mins. Etzebeth claims a lineout on the Lions 22 and Kolisi bursts from the maul to carry forward up to the five metre line, but the Bok captain’s run was of such distance he’s isolated himself and Itoje clamps on to win an important turnover.
PENALTY! South Africa 6 - 3 Lions (Dan Biggar)
19 mins. De Allende is offside in midfield. It’s bang in front but a good forty metres out and Biggar funnels all his skill and experience into his right boot to put his side on the board.
Updated
PENALTY! South Africa 6 - 0 Lions (Handre Pollard)
17 mins. Tom Curry hits De Klerk late as the scrum-half kicked and Pollard has another kickable chance to extend the lead.
That’s two penalties Curry has given away in the first quarter. His trademark eagerness to not helping at present.
Updated
15 mins. Itoje carries in and is stopped dead by Etzebeth and Du Toit and held upright before they hit the floor. Etzebeth doesn’t roll away but the ref says it’s a maul so it’s a Bok ball. He didn’t call maul, however he didn’t call tackle either so I guess we should assume it’s maul until the ref says otherwise.
PENALTY! South Africa 3 - 0 Lions (Handre Pollard)
13 mins. It was just left of the posts and 25 metres out. He does not miss them.
11 mins. First scrum of the match and the pitch is ripping up a bit so the ref is not penalising anyone yet for the resets, but a early engagement from the Lions front row allows Faf De Klerk to put his team back on the attack. After a couple of phases Tom Curry is penalised for not rolling away.
It’s in range and Pollard is licking his lips as he beckons the tee onto the field.
Updated
9 mins. Duhan van Der Merwe takes a nifty tip-on from Biggar and looks to be about to bear down on the fullback Le Roux, but the chilling sound of the ref’s whistle stops him in his tracks. Biggar’s pass was forward.
Updated
8 mins. Cowan-Dickie to Lawes in the lineout has been flawless so far in three lineouts and the latest one allows the Lions to set up a solid maul that is gaining some traction before Du Toit and Etzebeth swim around the side. Penalty Lions and they’ll have a lienout in the Bok half.
6 mins. South Africa have so far kicked away every possession early, in every part of the field they have had it. Clear policy to probe and test the Lions backfield cover and so far the tourists been up to the challenge. Hogg has a decent run out from his 22 but is isolated and allows a turnover.
Ferocious rucking from both teams so far.
3 mins. More clean possession from the Lions, but Am reads the midfield play and ABSOLUTELY MARMALISES Daly as the centre receives the ball. Seriously, Daly’s ancestors probably felt that.
2 mins. Luke Cowan-Dickie is accurate with his first throw in and Biggar sends a huge bomb into the South Africa 22. Van der Merwe is first to it in the air but is halted by a double whammy of knocking it on and being offside in front of the kicker.
Kick off!
1 min. Dan Biggar kicks deep and the real business is underway.
AnthemWatch
A fabulous rendition of the always wonderful South African anthem is punctuated by some cheeky TV direction lingering on Duhan van der Merwe’s face.
I can confirm he did not sing it
Here come the teams.
The Lions are led out by Alun Wyn Jones with BIL the lion in his left hand, the toy is dropped just before the touchline and the red tracksuits loosely gather around halfway to await the Boks.
Handre Pollard is first out on this the occasion of his fiftieth Test.
Updated
@bloodandmud feel sorry for me - In a birthday meal for my girlfriend - I did point out the Lions are only every 4 years and her birthday occurs yearly but that didn't land well
— James Gawkrodger (@gawkrodger) July 24, 2021
I don’t feel sorry for you, James. You have another human being that loves you enough to spend time with you to make you happy.
The fact it’s not making you happy today is the exception that proves the rule. Or something.
30 mins until kick off.
The Lions players are out warming up and Ronan O’Gara is making the point that the tourists cannot look to simply contain the Springboks, that they must go for it early.
Hard to disagree with that, and Gatland’s selection speaks to that approach.
Updated
“Good afternoon Lee, sorry to feel obliged to offer correction,” says an unnecessarily apologetic Francis McCluskey, “but for the Six Nations Conan was indeed first choice for Ireland. He even got the MOTM award against England - which probably got him the Lions gig now”
You are, of course, right Francis. However, my reflection was more that this was in the context of the absence of Caelan Doris who was everyone’s pick for first choice for Ireland prior to his terrible injury. Hence the slight surprise that Conan has warded off the Wales and previous Lions first choice, Faletau.
But, it’s completely in order to point out Conan has had a good year, including totally overpowering Simmonds in the Leinster vs Exeter Heineken Cup clash, so perhaps we shouldn’t really be that surprised he’s starting this game.
Teams
South Africa have their captain, Siya Kolisi, in the starting line-up after all reports suggested his Covid protocols would prevent him taking part. His leadership will be vital in the opening hour given his pack is a little light on experience. Kwagga Smith is in at Number 8, and the starting Lions props will fancy getting into Ox Nché and Trevor Nyakane. Nyakane is particular had a horrible time in the scrum during his outing for South Africa A.
The backs have put the band back together for this huge gig, with the complete set from the original RWC winning line-up taking the field.
Warren Gatland said this week that the selection meeting for this match was the most difficult he’s have ever been involved in during his four Lions tours. Not surprising when you consider some of the selections.
Duhan van der Werwe is given a wing berth ahead of the excellent Josh Adams; Ali Price jumps over tour vice-captain Conor Murray at scrum-half and Jack Conan gets the nod at Number 8 where he’s not even first choice for Ireland. Captain Alun Wyn Jones completes his phoenix-esque return, if the legend of the Phoenix was the bird slamming his busted wing repeatedly at the fire to put it out then rejoining his mates with little fuss.
A late withdrawal for Wyn Jones with a shoulder issue brings Rory Sutherland into the starting XV and Mako Vunipola onto the bench.
South Africa: Willie le Roux; Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi; Handré Pollard, Faf de Klerk; Ox Nché, Bongi Mbonambi, Trevor Nyakane, Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert, Siya Kolisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kwagga Smith.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Damian Willemse.
Lions: Stuart Hogg; Anthony Watson, Elliot Daly, Robbie Henshaw, Duhan van der Merwe; Dan Biggar, Ali Price; Rory Sutherland, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tadhg Furlong, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Courtney Lawes, Tom Curry, Jack Conan.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Tadhg Beirne, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Liam Williams.
Pre-match reading
Ugo Monye was on the last tour to South Africa and he shares the lessons he learned here.
Preamble
Welcome to Cape Town everyone, where a game many thought would never materialise is here - South Africa vs British & Irish Lions: The First Test.
What a journey it has been to get here. In the space of the month since the Lions rolled over Japan in Edinburgh and to this very day both teams have encountered plague related disruption, doubts over the fitness of their captains and not enough quality game time to prepare. Not the ideal way for the World Champions to take on the elite that four rugby countries have to offer, but it makes for an intriguing contest in the first of this three-act drama.
How important is victory today for the Lions? Well, winning a series after losing the First Test is not impossible, but the the tourists have only done this twice - the last time in 1989 vs Australia. Gatland did manage to salvage a drawn series after the hammering his side suffered vs New Zealand in opening clash four years ago, but it’s safe to say that a loss today does not bode well for hopes of taking the series.
Hoping to ensure that is the case are South Africa, a top quality team with not much more that three hours of competitive on-field preparation as a squad. On an individual level this is even worse; the backline with the exception of Pollard and Le Roux having not played Test rugby since they won the World Cup nearly two years ago. No wonder Rassie Erasmus stacked his A Team for the match ten days ago.
A scratch team vs an undercooked team means this is very hard to call. The benches will be literally and figuratively huge and on both counts the Lions reserves may offer a bit more. This could be the difference.
