Twelve years after an embarrassing 2-1 loss to the British and Irish Lions and 29 since their last series triumph over them, world champions South Africa will be looking to wipe out those painful memories today.
A South African triumph at Loftus Versfeld will open up an unbeatable 2-0 lead and make the third game at Ellis Park, Johannesburg irrelevant. Its only importance would be to complete a 3-0 Springbok sweep.
The Springboks have back row Schalk Burger back after missing last week’s win in Durban and will also be aided by playing at altitude, where they tend to play at their best.
PHOTO: AP
However, all is not lost for the Lions, because after being dominated in the scrums and mauls and trailing 26-7 in Durban, they hit back with some inspirational ball handling and linebreaking among the backs to go within five points of the Springboks. They outscored them 3-2 in terms of tries and if Ugo Monye and Mike Phillips had not wasted chances at the tryline, they would have added three more and won the game.
“Both teams will be better for the run last weekend and we know we will have to step up our performance to ensure that we again take the game to the opposition and are more accurate in taking our opportunities,’’ said Lions head coach Ian McGeechan, who has made five changes to his starting lineup compared from Durban.
Welsh tighthead prop Adam Jones and hooker Matthew Rees come in for Phil Vickery and Lee Mears.
Paul O’Connell will be partnered in the second row by Simon Shaw, the sole survivor of the Lions 1997 tour and starting his first Test after three tours.
Alun Wyn Jones falls to the bench alongside England prop Andrew Sheridan and Scottish hooker Ross Ford.
In the backs, Ireland’s Rob Kearney replaces the injured Lee Byrne at full-back while Luke Fitzgerald’s good showing in Tuesday’s draw with the Emerging Springboks sees him oust Ugo Monye on the left wing.
Monye misses out on a place among the subs, with the more versatile Shane Williams called up.
“As a squad the Lions still have everything to play for. The players know that the outcome of the Test series comes down to Saturday and they are determined to take the series to a decider in Johannesburg [on July 4],” he said.
The bad news for McGeechan, however, is that the Springboks know how close they went to throwing victory away at Kings Park last Saturday and are out to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Although Heinrich Brussow had an outstanding first start for the Springboks in Durban and scored one of the team’s two tries, he has been replaced by Burger in the starting lineup with South Africa going for their strongest available lineup to capture a series-winning victory.
“The one big advantage we do have playing Australia and New Zealand is that we play them so much and we know them,” Burger said. “We don’t play that often against the Northern Hemisphere teams so it’s quite a challenge. Especially last week.”
“There were a couple of things we hadn’t seen,” he said. “When you play Australia and New Zealand you’re pretty much well prepared for what’s coming. There are certain players we haven’t seen that much of and they really impressed us.”
The Lions’ have an all-Welsh front row — the first in an official Test since 1955 — which hopes to make sure Springbok loosehead prop Tendai Mtawariri doesn’t dominate as he did for 50 minutes last weekend.
Adam Jones and Matthew Rees will lineup alongside countryman Gethin Jenkins against Mtawariri, Bismarck du Plessis and John Smit in a confrontation that will go a long way to deciding who wins the match.
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