Eurosport - Mon, 06 Jul 15:44:00 2009
The British and Irish Lions avoided a second successive series whitewash and restored their pride by thumping world champions South Africa 28-9 in the third and final Test on Saturday.
South Africa, who won the first two Tests, made 10 changes and two tries for recalled wing Shane Williams helped the Lions avoid a first series sweep of defeats by the Springboks four years after losing 3-0 to New Zealand.
The victory, which matched their highest score and widest winning margin against South Africa set in 1974, also ended the Lions' record run of seven successive defeats. Their last win came in the first test against Australia in 2001.
It was South Africa's first loss at Ellis Park since France beat them in 2001.
"It's a very proud moment. Today was very important," captain Paul O'Connell said.
"It's been a very tough week mentally for everyone and we really dug deep there and some guys produced some serious form and some great scores."
The tourists, also forced to make seven changes following a raft of injuries, looked far more organised from the start.
Phil Vickery, who was scrummaged off the field by Tendai Mtawarira in the first test, gained revenge when he popped the "Beast" out of the first scrum and earned the Lions a penalty which fly-half Stephen Jones converted.
A great charge by hugely impressive number eight Jamie Heaslip and a neat inside pass by centre Riki Flutey then set up two tries for Williams as the Lions reached halftime deservedly 15-6 ahead.
Unlike last week in Pretoria when they allowed the Springboks to fight back from an 11-point deficit, the Lions overcame the sin-binning of lock Simon Shaw for kneeing and maintained the pressure after the break.
Ugo Monye intercepted a Wynand Olivier pass for a 70-metre try and two penalties from Jones, who kicked three in total plus two conversions, stretched the lead.
The new-look South African side, who wore white "justice" armbands in protest at Bakkies Botha's suspension, struggled for cohesion and when they did cross the line the TV official ruled out Odwa Ndungane's try for putting a foot in touch.
"We knew we had to dig deep and the guys are very conscious of the whole Lions ethos and we wanted to do it proud," O'Connell said.
"The first game we could have won, the second we should have won and we were eager the memory of playing well wouldn't be upset by a poor performance today.
"I hope people don't misconstrue the lap of honour," added the Irish lock. "We are under no illusions we've lost the test series but a lot of people have paid a lot of money to come here and we just wanted to thank them."
Coach Ian McGeechan, in charge when the Lions triumphed 2-1 12 years ago, added: "It was massive, the players really picked themselves up. There was such sadness in the dressing room last week so to come back and play like that again, that's an outstanding group of players.
"To finish off the way we have done is satisfaction but it's slightly secondary satisfaction as we came here to win the Test series and we haven't managed that."
Comment 188 - 207 of 207
Middlesex terraces doesn't need barbed wire defences, do they?
E=mc squared: Let me get this right. You are being racist on our behalf, talking about immigrants taking our schools and using our healthcare. I will have to let the BNP know that they can count on you.
You also talk about the millions leaving our shores. A quick check shows that the UK is the 7th most popular place to emigrate to. We have a net migration of over 700,000. In comparison South Africa has a net migration of 50,000 putting them on a par with Hungary and the Czech Republic (joint 45th). If you haven't visited Hungary or the Czech Republic I'm sure you can imagine that the aftermath of Soviet influence is not pretty. Imagine being as popular a destination as a former eastern block state! Mind you, I hear most of the houses in SA require soviet style defences. My bet is that your house has barbed wire on it, right? Probably better to live with an in-bred queen that live-in fear that your house is gonna get burgled any minute......Was that a noise outside?
The Brits are guilty of the worst atrocities of slavery the world has ever seen and they have the cheek to talk about apartheid,at least Sarf Efrica has moved on.
The UK has been given away to immigrants and your health,schools sold to the lowest immigrant bidder,ask the millions leaving your "fine shores" for a better life.
Disrespecting the Queen? Tch tch tch!
How can a South African possibly comment on anyone being in-bred. They all have the same surname for christ's sake. Surely that is a reflection on a very limited gene pool over there. If they could afford banjo's I'm sure they'd be playing them.
Lesley!! whos whining im over the moon we beat even if it was just the once!!
ohh yes lesley!!!!!
Hey Jaco, I'd rather have a inbred 80 year old as my head of state than the f*****g idiot you've got. 6 wives, charged with rape and fraud and his favourite song is 'bring me my machine gun' - excellent choice !
Don't have time to read all the comments but as this is a rugby forum I'll carry on. Our pride of British and Irish Lions did, indeed, make us proud. They played brilliantly against a tough Boks XV with great play from all departments of the field. The players who had something to prove from previous games Vickery, Moyne and S Williams, vindicated their selection in spades. Simon Shaw was sublime and the discipline the Lions showed in the face of some extremely dubious Bok tactics was enormous. We could say we won the series on aggregate but that would be churlish and take away from the South African supporters glory. Well done Boks. It was close with some fabulous rugby played from both sides.
Dennis B
I got a brickbat off you for saying that the Boks put 5 Lions out of the tour.
On reflection, you are probably right. I should have said that "because 5 Lions were out of the tour, that tipped the balance in the Boks favour".
So nice to see civilised comments coming from SA. You are more like the 100's of Saffies I have met and liked over the years. It's a real pity that some of the bigoted and nasty one's want to write on this site.
Alles van die beste, Dennis (excuse the spelling)
And to all South Africans - you are all welcome in UK and Wales in particular. It's bigots, racists and idiots that we don't want.
... and Jaco, like many of my fellow Brits, I am a Republican, but who do you think you are, dissing a lady of 80 years of age? Hard man, clearly!!
Well said Dennis B. Have to say, come on to this site because of the rugby - not to hear xenophobic ranting of idiots who clearly don't understand the game. The true supporter will have enjoyed the series immensely; been bemused by Burger staying on the park, equally bemused by bans given to Botha and now Shaw, delighted by the fact that so many tries were touched down by wing threequarters - both sides blessed with pace and rugby brain, excited by the instant understanding between Roberts and Bod, thrilled by the brute force of two great sets of forwards engaging in rugby combat to thrill us all. Hope I'm still alive and kicking in 12 years - would love to be there for the next episode! In the meantime, bring on Oz.
Accolades to Geech and his team for the spirit the tests were played in!
Accolades to Shane and Vickery for their performances
Brickbats to De Villiers (Idiot) for disrespecting the Lions and Tradition by making ALL those changes... He STILL doesn't understand !!!!
Brickbats to Schalk Burger.. nuff said
Brickbats to citing commissioner for Botha and Shaw suspensions... if those citings are the norm, the All Blacks won't have enough players for the final Test in 8 years time !!!
Brickbate to the Lion supporter who said the Boks put 5 players out of the tour... 3 of them were put out of action by their own stupity or bad luck (O Driscoll included
Accolades to ALL the British and Irish Lions travelling supporters... it was great to have you guys here
Good luck in 4 years time vs Wallabies !!!
Go BOKKE !!!!
Menace in the making you should take up Ballet definately, pushing and pulling jerseys is commonplace on the rugby field if you had ever watched a game before the test you would know that. Your team does it all the time! What are you a football player?
Louise P spoken so politely, like a true representative of the United Kingdom.
To be expected, you won the game and are stil whining! Grow up please before you put the world off the lions. Well done Shane Williams, given the chance you showed what you could do! Oh yes, was that Shaw with the illegal play, couldnt be, he isnt a rugby thug! Oh wait it is.
you south africans, if you dont like our comments dont f.....g come on here go back to your own f.....k country if its sooooooo great!!
your queen is stil inbred..and all the rest of you think that wrinkled old @#$% is holy?nice
Fantastic Test match on Saturday... only just recovering from a great celebration party - even though we lost the series. Congratulations to SA on their 2-1 victory. Congratulations to the Lions for touring in the proper Lions way, and putting in such an awesome display on Saturday. Lots of changes for both sides but, to beat any SA side in that stadium is a massive achievement. Congratulations to Stuart Dickinson who managed to referee pretty fairly for once. Shame for all that the refereeing was not up to required standard in earlier tests, as this last test might have had more significance.
Thanks to South Africa and the Lions for a great 6 weeks.
"The Germans should have killed all your mothers so it is not your faults but the nazis which could not finish the job. Hitler said give him 10 000 boers and he will take over the world". Martin (Boorman ?)
My God, words almost fail me ! I lived amongst Afrikanners for 5 years and could not believe their arrogance about their belief they were the chosen race. I had hoped when South Africa became democratic that their attitude would change but clearly it hasn't. Martin, you have no place in a civilised society never mind a Rugby forum. You disgrace every one of your countrymen with your vile racist filth.
By the way, Hiltler did have 10,000 Boers in the 2nd world war, all in South Africa, but they were all rounded up and interned within 14 days. Real Heroes huh ?
"Boks still won the series u dumb twats!" from eben wessels.
This is what we would call a paradoxical ironic quotation emphasising the venacular.
Notice the lack of grammar, punctuation and spelling whilst describing others as less than intelligent. But, of course, Eben is an Afrikanner.
Yes Eben, they did win the series, by putting 5 of the Lions best players out of the tour.
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