After all the agonising waiting, it’s finally here, folks! The Boks up against the Lions in the first test of the year in Durban.
Peter de Villiers has named a side that, although long on experience and containing a number of settled combinations, may nevertheless be short on match practice.
The Lions, on the other hand, have played plenty of rugby over the last few weeks. Ian McGeechan’s test side will be playing as a unit for the first time today, though. Will that prove decisive?
Kick-off in Durban is at 15h00 SA time.
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Frans Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adi Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8. Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (captain), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 17 Deon Carstens, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Jaque Fourie, 22 Morné Steyn
British & Irish Lions: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Paul O’Connell (captain), 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Adam Jones, 18 Donncha O’Callaghan, 19 Martyn Williams, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Rob Kearney.
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Stuart Dickinson, Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
TMO: Christophe Berdos (France)
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Our midfield looks a bit rusty (at best)…
Barring the great defense from JdV getting his hand under the ball to save the try…they have not been good…
A few times the Lions have broken through the midfield…
The try scored the Lions 12 brushed against and past Adi with Juan making the cover tackle from inside line…
Adi has passed behind JdV twice…
JdV has dropped 1 or 2…
The SA midfield is not looking good!??!
What the heck did JPP do there!??!
Go BOKKE!!!! We’re killing them!
19-7 at half time
Go Bokke!!!!!
Our scrum is absolutely drilling them! 2 lineouts so far which our jumpers have stolen! Ruan looking a little rusty (except his kicking!), but its all good in Dbn at them moment!
Phil is a loser!
@robdylan (Comment 4) :
Yeh with our exceptionally poor performing midfield…
Bizzy is working that mall…
Drive-try
Spies lost his headband somewhere….
Bekker lets Phillips past in match fixing like fashion…
And we win it….
And we hardly ever win internationals at the ABSA (the away field at home)…
Well done bokke! Nice one. Now for Loftus!
It should be easier for us on the highveld…but the Lions have been here for a while so I donno how much advantage we would have…
haha! Well done Bokke, not a bad performance at all, you’ll do better in the 2nd game, im sure of it.
and im in 2nd place on SB 😛
Great result this – we should be a lot better at altitude.
Didnt get to watch the whole game, sadly, but what I saw told me that our structures upfront are functioning well – and that is where the game begins.
Backline needs some time together, and they will at the very least match the BILs.
Oh, and how awesome was Beast?
Hmmm, not picking on you, but you were one who used to think he was very kak – how do you like them apples? 😆
@Big Fish (Comment 17) : come on, Fish… haven’t you figured out yet the Hmmm’s TV picks up a different signal to the rest of us? 🙂
How good was Frans Steyn at fullback? He had a very good game and his positional play was great..