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Lawrence Dallaglio column: British and Irish Lions have a chance to become legends but beware the wounded Springboks
Ahead of this Second Test, I’ve got the words of Sir Ian McGeechan ringing in my ears.
Back in 1997, after we had won the First Test against South Africa, he said to us Lions: “There’s only one thing more dangerous than a Springbok, and that’s a wounded Springbok.”
Rugby is like religion in South Africa and now the Lions have got the whole team, the whole nation, coming at them.
We have seen that with Rassie Erasmus, their director of rugby, and his actions this week — which included an hour-long video analysing the refereeing of the First Test.
It smacks of desperation to me. It’s amazing to think they are world champions. World champions don’t moan about anything really, they tend to focus on themselves.
It is already advantage Lions in my eyes. Sir Clive Woodward, who coached England to World Cup glory in 2003, used to like a little dramatic press conference, but the fact Rassie has done this suggests it’s the last throw of the dice for South Africa.
South Africa have got to slightly change how they play in tomorrow’s match. The Springboks in the last few years have played in a very calculated way. They are quite risk averse.
Now, they may start tomorrow’s game in the same manner but as the match carries on, and the Test series is on the line, they’ve got to start taking risks and that could make them a more dangerous side to play against.
They’ve got a lot of players, such as Cheslin Kolbe, who are match-winners, who’ve got that X-factor, and we have not seen a lot of that in this series so far. But as the game unfolds, South Africa will throw more caution to the wind.
That can work one way or the other. It could work for the Springboks or play into the Lions’ hands.
The Lions have got a choice: do they try to win the game for themselves or do they wait for the right moment and try to stop South Africa winning the match?
Warren Gatland has made changes for this Test and it is often hard on the people that have been replaced, because when you beat the world champions you find it tough when you’re dropped. But there is a little bit more physicality with certain selections, such as Chris Harris at centre. There is also a little more experience of performing under pressure by bringing in Conor Murray and Mako Vunipola.
These players have now got a wonderful opportunity to do what very few Lions teams have done, and that is to create history. Winning in New Zealand and winning in South Africa are the two hardest things you can do in rugby. Only two teams have won a Test series in South Africa. One is the Lions, twice, and the other is the All Blacks.
This is a great opportunity for them to do something because everyone you speak to about the Lions talks about how special it is to get picked. Of course that is special, but equally there are two Lions. There are those who get picked and those who win a series.
The challenge now for this group of players is to go down in history. They’ve got the opportunity to make themselves become, not just Lions, but Lions legends — and there is a difference.
Listen to Lawrence Dallaglio’s Lions Podcast, in partnership with Fuller’s London Pride standard.co.uk/lionspodcast
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