148 A voice of reason, well done! A breath of fresh air­ in all the mudslinging.

We are always ready to point fingers to only the­ Springboks playing dirty, but hang on there was a few­ high tackles and other offences that the LIONS did....­ which went unpunished......

IRB plus all other rugby­ boards should also consider looking at the referees. i­ feel personally that referees from the southern­ hemisphere read the game different to the northern­ hemisphere.

Probably that frustrates the players and­ spectators.

I would like to say (a sarcastic) thank you to all­ those on here who have branded all South Africans as­ thugs, thieves, racists, cheats etc, all because a­ rugby player did something stupid on the field.­ Don't worry, I won't judge all Brits based on­ these and other narrow minded comments made here.

Can­ anyone explain what the Lions 99 call was all about. I­ have looked on the internet and have found a few short­ articles. Apparently it was introduced to counter the­ thuggery of the Boks who have always had a reputation­ for being a bit rough, but I also read an interview­ with JPR Williams who said he ran 60m to punch a Bok­ because there wasn't one near him when the call was­ made. He stated that he wasn't proud of what he­ did, but I bet he was made out to be a hero at the­ time. My understanding was that when the call was made,­ a Lion would punch a Springbok, whoever was closest.­ Wow you guys really wrote the book on sportsmanship!!­

Oh I bet you'll say that it was a response to the­ Boks, maybe it was, but it still sounds like an excuse­ to punch someone. Hey, not that I'm complaining,­ Rugby has always had its moments, they are just not­ always made such a massive deal of.

Another thing, why­ do we never hear the Aussies and All Blacks whining­ about the Boks being cheats or dirty? Is it because­ they give as good as they get or maybe they are better­ losers? Or maybe it is because they actually manage to­ beat us (unlike England).

why have you put invalid comment on my comment rob k

Burger should have been sent off - why wasn't he­ sent off. Look towards the ref and the ref alone, who­ obviously is anti British.

Is someone mistaking McGeechan (Who played No. 10) and­ McGlauchlan (Probably one of the best props to have­ played rugby) Both were Scottish and both were world­ class so I can forgive the error. lol

I happen to be located in Saudi Arabia, I am Scottish­ and really enjoyed both test matches. I believe that­ the best team won both games. They are worthy World­ Champions. The refereeeing in both games could have­ been better, in fact there were better referees­ assisting in both games. We will see how SA get on in­ the Tri-Nations (3 0f 6 without the services of their­ world class flanker, who deservedly was banned) Get a­ grip boys and girls stuck to the rugby comments please.

Considering this was a rugby game there seems to be a­ lot of mention of racism, colonialism and general­ comments not related to the game? Yes what Schalk did­ was worng, and has been banned accordingly, but there­ is no mention of the dangerous tackle on Rossouw by­ golden boy Brian O'Driscoll. Why was he not cited­ for this as Bakkies was for his?

Would love to know exactly how McGeechan used to­ "dominate in the scrum" Lol!!

first thing, not everyone supporting the lions team is­ English....i can't believe that burger only got 8­ weeks,it's ridiculous..and anyone who calls the­ lions whimps burger is the biggest of all,he can't­ even admit he did it.....what a looser........!Quinlan­ got 12 weeks for "a hand suspected near the eye­ area" and we clearly see Burger stick his fingers­ into fitzgeralds eyes and can see fitzgerald roaring..i­ think he should have got at LEAST 12 weeks...this­ isn't about us loosing it's about the way the­ South Africans won...they severely injured number­ 1,3,12,13,14,11,21...they clearly have to resort that­ this sort of violence and are quite proud to do so,what­ low life scum...........

Don't you just love McGeechans little speech, as I­ recall he was as bad as any when it came to domination­ in the scrum, which translates to brutal attacks on the­ opposition in order to force them into making­ mistakes.
So you lost, so now we have to listen to the­ POM's whinging because they couldn't hack it. I­ didn't meet one whinging POM on the tour, they all­ were sorry to loose but all claimed the games had been­ great even the last one, so the complaining POM's­ were probably sitting at home or in the Pub, in that­ cold damp place England

Trouble writes: "The­ Uk is now my country, the­ country where my wife and­ children were born. Now I­ still hate the Afrikaaner and­ enjoy to irritate the­ young so called sports lovers.­ You are all so young­ and so angry and bite so easily.­ You make me laugh. So­ full of political knowledge when­ you know nothing. But­ this is about sport, COME ON THE­ LIONS"

Is it­ just me, but isn't the irony just simply­ stunning?

peterjohn.wallis: (great credentials by the­ way).
If my memory serves me right, the Boks have not­ yet lost (please correct me if I am reading the test­ series 2: nil erroneously). This renders your so called­ "final fact" completely moot. Because its not­ a fact.
It is pretty clear to me which camp the­ whinging is originating from.
I do not recall any­ complaints from the provincial, invitataion and­ emerging Boks teams when they lost/drew to the Lions.­ Would you care to revise the "facts".

Allot of the below has nothing to do with the sport of­ rugby. why do people bring up war, racism, colonialism,­ ect ect when that is all history to the modern world­ and should be just that...history!! The actual­ 'facts' about the discussion should be about­ rugby. some one below ( 134 )mentioned everything from­ iraq to gordon brown....what the heck has that to do­ with a rugby match? this person is obviously just­ trying to incite a war of words to make himself feel­ big. it's quite clear that this guy knows very­ little about rugby. the facts are that yes the gouging­ happened, yes he should have been red carded , the­ lions scored ( i think) 10 points while he was off the­ pitch which would indicate they would have won easily,­ especially as it was very one sided in the first half.­ When critical areas of the game are totally dominated­ by one team (lions scrum & centres ) it must only­ be concluded that both props and centres were the­ target of cynical, dirty tricks from a side that ruin­ any hope of a classic match by cheating and 'taking­ out' skilled players. all for what??? a macho­ ego??. I would rather lose than win by these means. yes­ it's a physical game and yes there are injuries,­ but, why do certain countries have such a chip on their­ shoulder with british/irish rugby players?? grow up and­ comment about the 'sport' of rugby ( sport­ being the operative word not 'win at any cost­ because your egos cant cope with losing to­ brits').final fact....the lions can take losing­ like men, SA cannot. good night (from an ex rugby­ player, now a coach and a ref.)

My my some heated debate on this topic! Quite a lot of­ it nothing to do with the facts of the rugby game­ though. So to put the record straight 1. Shalk Burger­ has been proven guilty of the sickening offence of­ eye-gouging, confirming that he should actually have­ been red carded. 2. Similarly, Bakkies Botha has been­ found guilty of making a dangerous (and cheap) hit on­ Adam Jones putting him into hospital for surgery - this­ should have been at least a yellow card. So if SA had­ had to play for 78mins with only 14 men and for 68­ minutes with 13 men the result, close as it was, would­ most likely have gone in the Lions favour. When victory­ has to come at the cost of cheating and foul play then­ one has to question those who show no conscience at the­ gain.

126: go tell our Boys face to face what a bunch of­ wimps they are...

Foeyp, did you buy your eduction from a lucky packet? I­ bet if you look in the mirror, all you would see is the­ back of a donkeys @#$%. I laugh how you casually­ comment over the death of thousands of Iraq people at­ the hand of the Americans and British. Your emperial­ arrogant attitude lives strong within you. Did you see­ the latest BNP vote standing...and you call us Racits­ Biggotts. The fact remains Britan use to be this great­ country, now it is reduced to the laughing stock of the­ world. Your entire political system is corrupt, you­ kill in the name of democracy however your current­ leader could not be forced out even if you tried, the­ list is endless. The biggest difference between you and­ I is I do not tell the rest of the world how to live­ meanwhile my own back yard is full of rubbish. Pot­ calling the kettle black. Clean your own back yard up­ before you look into mine, but hey, thats the empiral­ attitue thats born into your genes.

131 - You are an idiot!

Sory, but a weak referee did not penalise the home side­ adequately for offences. But nevertheless gave two­ penalties for Lions infringements that have never been­ awarded before. It seems he was afraid the South­ Africans might go for him if he did penalise­ them.
South Africa has a reputation for making sure key­ players from the opposition get injured during a match.­ Witness the five key players who had to go off from­ the Lions . Whereas the one South African who was­ improperly tackled was fairly given a penalty which won­ South Africa the game.
The fourth official should be­ capable of watching the match and advising the playing­ referee when an infringement is missed.
There is no­ question that Schalk Burger should have been red carded­ for what was blatantly an eye gouge after the tackle­ was completed.

I bet 132 doesn't even live in SA

Seems to me that the only way the southern hemisphere­ teams can beat the Lions is by unfair means. Yes,­ it's a tough game, but there have to be rules in­ any sport. Remember Doddie Weir crippled in SA. Brian­ O'D dumped on his head in NZ by Umaga. Now we have­ eye gouging and late tackles.
These are not excuses,­ but inevitably affect the outcome of matches. We could,­ and should have won both of the last two tests. If­ we'd have taken our chances in the first test the­ outcome would have been very different. But, as you­ will no doubt remind me, 'if's, but's and­ maybe's don't change the record books. We do,­ however, need strong referee's. In the main we do,­ but they should be reviewed and tested regularly to­ keep the standards as high as possible.
We all want to­ see two evenly matched teams going head to head, and to­ have red carded Beef Burger would have changed the game­ completely.
There has been very little to choose­ between a 'scratch' Lions team and the current­ World Champions. Let's hope the Lions can salvage a­ bit of pride on Saturday.
Don Roberto of Murcia