By Chris Matthews
On 28 June 2021, the British and Irish Lions arrived on South African shores under the leadership of rugby-stalwart and head coach Warren Gatland. Their arrival signaled the end of a 12-year wait to see the Springboks take on the best of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland – as well as an opportunity to see the world champions take on arguably their greatest opponents in what had been an 18-month hiatus from international rugby for the Boks.
As has become tradition, the Lions began their campaign by taking on an array of South Africa’s domestic sides. Indeed a rarity in this day and age given how international franchise sport has become in recent years, with teams not necessarily boasting players from their region or even country in many cases. As for the rugby-deprived Boks, two warm-up matches were scheduled against Georgia – who were no doubt looking to further improve their relationship with the European Union by providing the Boks with adequate preparation ahead of their battle with the British.
The Lions picked off their South African namesakes, the Sigma Lions, with a 56-14 at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg. They then proceeded to pick up back-to-back wins over the Cell-C Sharks, who astoundingly had enough ‘airtime’ to stand in place of the Covid-ridden Vodacom Bulls side. The scores read 54-7 and 71-31 in favour of the Lions respectively. Things were finally getting underway in the Bok camp with a 40-9 victory over Georgia at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, resulting in new head coach Jacques Nienaber securing his first win in command. However, momentum was soon cut short as almost half the Bok squad contracted Covid-19, resulting in the second warm-up being cancelled – unsurprising given the lack of social distancing at the scrum-down.
All being said, solace would soon be found a few weeks later when a de facto Springbok side, under the guise of the name South Africa ‘A’, clinched an epic 17-3 victory over the Lions at the Cape Town Stadium. This clash was followed by a final warm up game for the Lions against the DHL Stormers where they cruised to a 49-3 win and saw their main man and skipper Alun Wyn Jones return to action after a shoulder injury. The South Africa ‘A’ side was dealt a hand of Murphy’s Law in suffering an uncanny 17-14 defeat to the now recovered Bulls side.
With all warm-up games, or lack thereof for some, now completed, the series was truly set to begin. Notable players that had caught the attention of the public in the run-up to the three test matches were that of Cheslin Kolbe and Duhan van der Merwe – and the clash they would be having at wing. Kolbe, dubbed ‘the Messi of rugby’ and indeed a candidate for player of the year, would have his work cut out for him against the towering figure of Duhan van der Merwe, the South African born player and product of Hoërskool Outeniqua now under the employment of her Majesty the Queen.
The opening match of the series kicked off on 24 August in Cape Town. The excitement was almost tangible despite the stadium being filled with no spectators due to ongoing Covid restrictions. Given the recent insurgence and violence the country had faced leading up to the match, it was evident that captain Siya Kolisi would not only be carrying his team, but indeed a country needing something to go its way. The match opened with early points going the way of the Boks thanks to the boot of Handré Pollard. However, despite a hard-fought try by no.9 Faf de Klerk – the Lions ultimately came out on top, no thanks to a try by Luke Cowan-Dickie and five successful kicks made by Dan Biggar and Owen Farrell collectively. The final scoreboard read 22-17 in favour of the Lions.
Strangely, post-game talking points centered more around the officiating of the game and off-field drama than team performance. Newly appointed Director of Rugby, and former head coach, Rassie Erasmas clearly followed by example in his appointment to public office by landing himself in hot water and controversy. Coined ‘the most expensive water boy in rugby’, Rassie had not only acted rather cleverly by bending the rules to secure himself a neon bib and replace orange slices with a good pep talk – but he also took it upon himself to release an hour-long video breaking down the poor refereeing by Australian referee, Nic Berry. Sparing all the points Rassie made, he in no uncertain terms told Berry that it was not really such a ‘g’day mate!’.
The second game would hand the Boks their most convincing win of the series with a result of 27-9 over the Lions. The only tries of the day went to winger Makazole Mapimpi, and centre Lukhanyo Am. The Boks were back to their winning ways, and evidently Rassie’s off-field antics had done the trick. Things were now all square ahead of the final game of the series.
With tensions between both sides at boiling point, it was all to play for in Cape Town for the final test. The midweek announcement that former Springbok flyhalf Morné Steyn would be in the starting 23 come Saturday sent memories back to when he slotted the winning kick back in 2009 to win the series for the Springboks. Tries of the day went to Russell and Kolbe, who finally came into his own and did what he did best. All square after 78 mins, a late-game penalty within range of the posts allowed Morné Steyn the opportunity to close the series in a fairytale-like fashion. True to form, in what could only be called déjà vu, Steyn put one between the posts to hand the Boks the game and the series. The final result was 19-16 to the Boks and a 2-1 series win.