So, how did that happen – Lions 22 points, South Africa 17?
Despite it being a historic victory and having a nail-biting final 20 minutes, it was a Test match which didn’t do much for me, full of so-called great hits and collisions, of course, but absent of running rugby. The recent Australia versus France Test matches were, in very sharp contrast, full of pace and invention.
At the same time, we were offered far more than our fair share of open play kicking, with no thoughts of flair or evasion on either side. The Lions were clearly the fitter team as the match went into the last quarter, while South Africa were simply running out of steam.
In the run up to the match, Warren Gatland had used the media to put very hostile pressure on the appointment of Marius Jonker, a South African, who had been called in to replace the original appointee, New Zealander Brendon Pickerill, who did not travel because of Covid advice.
Jonker is an extremely experienced TMO, and knows his way around the technical complexities of the system, far more so than the actual referees who have very little experience in the role. Suggestions that there could be a neutral TMO sitting remotely, maybe in France, showed little understanding of what is needed or involved. As things turned out, the involvement of Jonker was pivotal to the Lions’ win.
In the absence of compelling, clear and obvious evidence, that Le Roux was definitely in front when the ball left Am's foot, the try should have stood
What is supposed to happen, and World Rugby's Joel Jutge has worked very hard on it, is that the referee must take ownership of all decisions, and lead the discussions with the TMO; in other words, the TMO should not be the arbiter, but the adviser. When referee Nic Berry awarded Willie le Roux a try, it was therefore quite in order to go back and have a look.
After a lot of study, but strangely with no input from the referee, it was left to Jonker to decide that Le Roux had been perhaps a blade of grass in front of the kick through by Lukhanyo Am. South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has generously agreed with the decision of Jonker, his fellow countryman, despite the fact that he also added, "it could have gone either way".
But before everybody, the officials included, jump at his comment and says that’s all right then, I am afraid that does not make it the correct call. In the absence of compelling, clear and obvious evidence, which we did not see, that Le Roux was definitely in front when the ball left Am’s foot, the try should have stood.
Earlier, as the Lions attacked, Robbie Henshaw drove forward, Berry asked the TMO to check for a potential dangerous tackle; play continued as Jonker had a look, before advising that, yes, there was a high tackle. The Lions kicked for touch and, from the subsequent attacking lineout, Luke Cowan-Dickie went over for a converted try.
The penalty was given without the referee seeing a replay, and from subsequent TV coverage it looked a very harsh call against the Boks. These two incidents add up to at least a 12 points swing in favour of the men in red; the Lions and Gatland rode their luck of course, who wouldn’t?
Later on, Hamish Watson irrationally decided that he'd upend Le Roux with an old fashioned tip-tackle, lifting his opponent's legs into the air and dropping him to the ground. Thankfully, these dangerous tackles are now a rarity, and with the Boks blowing hard at this point they would surely have liked to have been playing against 14 men for 10 minutes, perhaps longer.
One colour or another, there was definitely a card needed for the offence, but, astonishingly, none of the match officials saw fit to review it. Adding insult to injury Handré Pollard missed the kick, more Lions luck in this little episode.
It's very hard, though, to have any sympathy for South Africa whose director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, aka official team water carrier, has no problem pushing the laws of the game to their absolute limits, and, at the same time, tearing to shreds the spirit of those laws.
Is it too much to ask that both camps take the opportunity of the next fortnight to show well-meant, genuine, mutual respect and friendship?
These state that a team coach cannot enter the field of play, so Nienaber sits in the stand conveying messages to his director-water carrier (who was coach until last year, but who is, apparently, now not specifically covered by the law) who then instructs the players. Nice work if you can get it.
Whatever is left of the ethos of rugby is in danger of going down the drain, and World Rugby will need to put a new plug in the hole by regulating exactly who can, and who cannot be, a water carrier. Such proposals will likely come under the remit of WR’s High Performance Committee which is very much involved in shaping the future of the game. It is obviously both a huge responsibility and a privilege to sit on that committee, one of whose members is, indeed, a certain Rassie Erasmus.
South Africa is being ravaged by Covid, and now also by serious civil unrest. The pros and cons of the Lions tour amid all of this awfulness will be debated at length but, perhaps, sport can shine a momentary light of distraction. However, the unseemly bickering between Erasmus and Gatland which was played out in the media last week, the pre-match intimidation of the TMO, the water carrier affair, all of these serve only to dim that light, and to show the game of rugby at its worst.
Previous Lions tours to South Africa saw players visiting hospitals, having a kickabout with kids in poverty-stricken townships, and generally spreading goodwill wherever they went. Covid has made that all impossible, but we should still be able to expect a lot more from those in charge.
Is it too much to ask that both camps take the opportunity of the next fortnight to show well-meant, genuine, mutual respect and friendship? There is a responsibility to do so which is, at least, equal to winning; and one does not preclude the other.
Owen Doyle is a former Test referee and former director of referees with the IRFU
