Heartwarming sporting defeats are rare these days. Modern rugby union is seldom a game for romantics and the outcome is usually all that matters. Despite a 2–1 series loss, the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour has proved a vivid exception and every professional team could learn a lot from their example. When players as experienced as Phil Vickery and Stephen Jones insist they have never known a more life-enhancing tour, the Lions concept has surely been refreshed for years to come.
Victory in the final Test, by a margin that has not been exceeded in 118 years of this fixture, confirmed Ian McGeechan as rugby's ultimate alchemist. Only a side which bonded tighter than any of its recent predecessors could have produced a performance of this calibre at the end of an achingly long season with a host of first-choice players missing. There have been more obviously talented Lions squads than this one, but few have risen to the stiffest of challenges with more enthusiasm. In the process all sorts of myths have been buried: that northern-hemisphere rugby is stodgier than the southern equivalent, that endless hours on the training field are essential, and that the Lions are dead meat.
"Anyone who says the Lions cannot be competitive cannot possibly have seen the last three games," said the tour manager, Gerald Davies. At least one Lions forward could be heard insisting he would follow the captain, Paul O'Connell, to the ends of the earth, while Vickery summed up the prevailing mood: "I can honestly say I've never been on a tour with so many good men. I think we've put a huge amount of pride back into the Lions shirt."
Saturday's parting shot also redeemed several individual reputations: whatever Vickery, O'Connell, Ugo Monye, Riki Flutey and the two Williams, Shane and Martyn, achieve in the remainder of their careers they can retire knowing they contributed fully to one of the great Lions Test wins, the biggest since Willie John McBride's triumphant tour of 1974.
It is all very well saying South Africa made 10 changes for this match, but the Lions themselves made seven, plus one positional switch. On aggregate they won the Test series 74–63 and scored seven tries to five; Jamie Heaslip, the day's outstanding player, reckoned his team could have given anyone a game at the weekend.
The South Africa captain, John Smit, even rated the Lions "as competitive as any team we've ever played". At times the Springboks must have felt they were up against a hydra as the likes of Flutey, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Sheridan and John Hayes emerged to fill the supposedly gaping holes left by injuries to Jamie Roberts, Brian O'Driscoll, Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones.
Shane Williams' two first-half tries were no more than the Lions deserved for their bravery and enterprising, multi-phase approach work on a ground where the Boks had lost just twice in the past 15 years. After his first Test profligacy, when two golden chances went begging, Monye's 54th-minute interception try was sweet indeed. It ensured he finished as the Lions' leading tour try-scorer, with five. Nor did the visiting defence betray any sign of the collective depression which had gripped the squad in the wake of the second Test in Pretoria.
"We've now got a new template for preparing for a Test match, which involves quite a bit of alcohol early in the week," joked McGeechan.
If Shaw was guilty of a clumsy challenge when he kneed Fourie du Preez in the back, he can at least be relied upon to react with more grace to his two-week suspension than South Africa have done to Bakkies Botha's similar ban. To wear white armbands with the word "justice" on them showed a depressing lack of perspective and again exposed Peter de Villiers' lack of substance as a head coach. Another home defeat on this scale in the forthcoming Tri-Nations and his tenure will surely be over by Christmas.
The Lions, though, are enjoying a new lease of life. "Lions tours should carry on," said Vickery, who confessed to shedding a tear prior to his final appearance in the famous red jersey. "It's the most unbelievable experience you can have as a rugby player and I pray it continues."
"If you can persuade 40,000 people to fly 6,000 miles to watch a rugby team," said McGeechan, "that's not a bad business model." His supreme gift is his ability to convince men of disparate backgrounds and nationality to commit to a cause which roots out imposters and egotists. As character-laden sporting odysseys go, a Lions tour remains hard to beat.
South Africa Kirchner (F Steyn 56); O Ndungane, Fourie, Olivier, Nokwe (Spies 65); M Steyn, Du Preez (Pienaar ht); Mtawarira (Steenkamp 71), Ralepelle (Du Plessis ht), Smit (capt; Carstens 71), Muller, Matfield, Brussow, Smith, Kankowski.
Pens M Steyn 3.
Lions Kearney; Monye, Bowe, Flutey (Ellis 55), S Williams; S Jones, Phillips; Sheridan, Rees (Ford 37), Vickery (Hayes 55), Shaw (AW Jones 66), O'Connell (capt), Worsley (T Croft 30-34, 66), M Williams (D Wallace 76), M Williams, Heaslip.
Tries S Williams 2, Monye. Cons Jones 2. Pens Jones 3.
Sin-bin Shaw 37.
Referee S Dickinson (Australia). Attendance 58,318.
