Sunday, August 1, 2010

IAN McGEECHAN could not hide his pride as the Lions signed off from their tough tour of duty in South Africa with a morale-boosting third Test victory at Ellis Park.

The series was already lost after Morne Steyn’s last-gasp kick put the Springboks 2-0 up last week in a bruising encounter that left five Lions in hospital.

But a much-changed side showed that rugby in the northern hemisphere can still compete, with two Shane Williams scores and a Ugo Monye breakaway seeing off the world champions.

The Lions had lost the first two Tests 26-21 and 28-25. And although delighted with the victory, coach McGeechan was disappointed that his side had not managed to keep the series alive despite being the better team for parts of the first two Tests.

The Scot said: “I am highly delighted. This is massive. They picked themselves up.

“The dressing room last weekend was not one I wanted to be in. There was so much sadness. They are an outstanding group of players. I think we have been the best team in four of the six halves of rugby we have played in the Tests.

“The disappointment is that we could have been 2-0 up coming here or at least one up. So it is a slightly secondary satisfaction this victory brings. This is definitely my last Lions tour.”

Both sides had chances to score in an open first period, but it was the Lions who crossed with the scores tied at 3-3 after Stephen Jones and Morne Steyn had traded penalty kicks.

Irish No.8 Jamie Heaslip was impressive throughout, and he managed to hold off the challenge of Wynand Olivier before offloading for Welsh wing wizard Williams to go in under the posts. Jones bizarrely then had his conversion effort charged down after the wind blew the ball over.

WIlliams then had another superb break but his crossfield kick was cleared by Bok fly-half Steyn.

But the No.11 was at it again however, crossing for his second score after England centre Riki Flutey palmed his own chip into the wing’s hands.
The Lions went in at the break 15-6 ahead, Monye seized on a speculative pass from Wynand Olivier for an 85-metre intercept try which was converted by Jones to stretch the lead further.

Steyn hit his third penalty to close the gap to 22-9 with 12 minutes remaining. But any faint hope the Springboks had of a second comeback win in a row was dashed after Jones kicked two penalties thanks to some ill-discipline from Heinrich Brussow and Bismarck du Plessis.

Lions skipper Paul O’Connell was delighted to have given the travelling fans some cheer after two tough weeks.

The Irish lock said: “We are under no illusions that we didn’t win the series but the lap of honour was a way of saying thank you to all those fans who spent a fortune on coming out here to watch us.

“We were very conscious of putting up a good performance here.

“That was a very proud moment and a very important win for the Lions. It has been a very tough week mentally for everyone. We dug deep.”