Bruised Lions set for one final push (From Free Press Series)

Bruised Lions set for one final push

10:00am Saturday 4th July 2009

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PRIDE is very much on the line today when the British and Irish Lions bid to avoid a Test series whitewash at the hands of world champions South Africa.

It may be a dead rubber with the series already decided 2-0 in favour of the Springboks, but a great deal is still at stake with the Lions aiming to avoid what would be a most undeserved clean sweep given the way they have had a real go at their hosts on and off the field.

Even worse for the Lions if this Johannnesburg Test goes the same way as the others, it would be a second successive whitewash following the fate suffered by Clive Woodward’s Lions in New Zealand in 2005.

Not only that but another setback for the Lions today would result in their first whitewash in South Africa, again an undeserved outcome.

Even the much poorer tourists of 1962 and 1968 achieved a draw amid their defeats – four Tests were played in those days – as did the 1924 side while the 1980 team won the final Test in Prestoria after going 3-0 down in the series.

Nevertheless, the Springboks will want to ram home their supremacy by achieving a 3-0 result.

Apart from the bare statistics, the final game of the current tour will be played against a backdrop of huge controversy after the events of the second match a week ago.

Dominating the headlines was not the actual match but the eye gouging by Springbok flanker Schalk Burger on Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald.

An outcry resulted and Burger was cited and subsequently banned for two months, though that caused another storm because many felt it was an insuffient suspension, coming on top of the yellow card he received in the match from French referee Christophe Berdos when many felt it should have been red.

Rubbing salt into the gaping wound was the later remark by South Africa coach Peter de Villiers that Burger had been harshly treated and that he didn’t believe it was even a card offence, claiming rugby was being reduced to the level of ballet.

He was forced to apologise, but then came more trouble when South Africa lodged an appeal against the two-match ban on lock Bakkies Botha, even though he had shoulder charged Lions and Wales prop Adam Jones so heavily that he dislocated his shoulder.

The ban was upheld on appeal and now the South Africans are claiming the game has gone soft again and Botha was doing no more than clearing out.

Again the Lions are outraged, so the heat will very much be on in the final Test today when events have piled up to cause considerable animosity between the rival camps.

Both teams have made widespread changes, the Lions disrupted by the loss of centres Brian O’Driscoll and Jamie Roberts plus both props Jones and Gethin Jenkins because of injuries in that brutal second Test.

De Villiers has decided to ring the changes to give a fresh set of backs in particular an opportunity to face the Lions, only scrum half Fourie du Preez remaining from those who started last week.

Haunting the Lions from the off this time will be outside half Morne Steyn whose monster penaltry with the last kick of the game from inside his own half last week left the Lions beaten and traumatised after a mighty effort for the first 60 minutes until injuries took a heavy toll.

For the Lions it will be the last chance for many, notably Welsh pair Martyn and Shane Williams who start for the first time in this series while tight head prop Phil Vickery has a chance of redemption after the mauling he received at the hands of Tenndai ‘The Beast” Mtawarira in the first Test.

It’s difficult to predict which way this one will go given that both sides are so changed – just five players remaining in the South African team from seven days ago – but it will be a shame if the Lions fail again given how much the value of their brand has been restored on this tour.

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