No fairytale end for Lions but Finn Russell steals the show
- Published
Finn Russell handled the pressure of a Lions Test as the tourists lost out
The dream died in the end, but for a while it looked like one of the most savage British and Irish Lions series, pockmarked by bitterness and rancour off the field and little more than untrammelled aggression on it, could be settled by a genius in red rather than an army of behemoths in green.
Finn Russell came on to the pitch in Cape Town in the 10th minute and within seconds of arriving, a game that was going firmly against the Lions suddenly started to turn the other way. The Lions had no control of the gain line, no front foot ball, no carriers to match the might of what was coming at them from South Africa.
When Russell appeared for the injured Dan Biggar the stop-start pace of play shifted, the tempo that was pedestrian turned. Russell put speed into the game, kicking a penalty to make it 3-3, dropping in little kicks and floated passes to get the Lions moving into the outside channels where they wanted to attack.
He was flat to the gain line and, at last in this series, the Lions were throwing some variety at the Springboks. His penalty to touch was the launchpad for Ken Owens' try that put the Lions in front, his conversion, nerveless from distance, put them seven points clear. The snap in his delivery, the accuracy of his kicking, the rapidity of everything he was doing had flipped the momentum. The Lions owned possession and owned territory, too.
Approaching the half-hour there was the first of many moments that will haunt the Lions. They waited practically two and a half Tests to engineer time and space out wide and finally they'd done it. Liam Williams running free with Josh Adams outside him. Draw your man and let it go. Simple. Pressure, though. Decision-making in the white heat of a deciding Test.
Williams picked the wrong option, went for contact and the chance went. A calamitous call. It was a key play but the Lions had other chances in those vital minutes before half-time. They had terrific field position and coughed it up when Tom Curry was penalised by being ahead of his maul.
Maro Itoje's surge put them in a position to strike but they got done on the floor. Russell's penalty to touch just before the break gave them a 5m lineout but Eben Etzebeth pinched it in the air. They had another chance soon after but Ali Price got turned over by Siya Kolisi.
Russell almost missed out on the tour due to injury
There's been a fair degree of lazy analysis on Russell from outside Scotland, a depiction of him as a player that's all style and not enough substance for big boy's rugby like this. Never mind that Russell's last Test match before this one was a masterclass in game management in Scotland's victory in Paris. The control he had in France was repeated in Cape Town, but those points had to come. Had to.
The Boks hung on to trail 10-6 at half-time. A veritable triumph. They'd had 31% possession and 26% territory and were only four points down. With all that ball and all those opportunities the Lions could have put themselves into a dominant position, but they didn't. All of them would have known that the Boks weren't going to be as poor again in the second 40. All of them would have known that those wasted try-scoring moments could come back to sicken them.
It twisted and turned, though. Boy, did it twist and turn. At one point the camera picked out Russell smiling amid the tension. Maybe it's a nervous tick, but he genuinely looked like he was lapping up the enormity of what was going on. Glad to be part of it. A very big part.
South Africa slowed it all down after the restart, just as they did in the second half a week ago, but they were not convincing. You looked at their team and wondered where on earth was their most lethal player, Cheslin Kolbe.
Kolbe, one of the game's great attackers, had been memorable in the series only for taking out Conor Murray in the air last week and then, somehow, avoiding a red card. Line breaks, defenders beaten, searing examples of his excellence - zero or next to zero. And then the hero turned up.
A Price box-kick, an almighty contest in the air, Willie le Roux bursting downfield, Kolbe in precious space outside. He doesn't need much. He had Liam Williams to beat and did it with ease. He had Luke Cowan-Dickie to contend with and he was by him in a blur. It went to the TMO and the officials called it right. The Springboks led 13-10 with 23 minutes to go.
Enter Russell again and again. He put over a 44m penalty to level it at 13-13, a kick that never looked like missing from the minute it left his boot. When Morne Steyn made it 16-13. Russell levelled it again with six minutes left. The pressure of that moment was off the scale. The fly-half was as cool as you like, as if he was back at Stirling County or Falkirk or Ayr banging one over in a club game before hitting the bar for a pint.
The endgame was dramatic, a kick to the Lions' solar plexus for the chances they passed up. There's been so many grim stories attached to this trip, so much logistical upset, so many meaningless turkey shoots early on, so much ugly rugby in the Test series.
There's been a lot of fury and little joy. A million kicks, a million things for the TMO to analyse, a million allegations in a Rassie Erasmus video that lasted a million minutes - or just felt like it. What we had in the final seconds was a fairytale. Not a Lions fairytale or a Russell fairytale, but a fairytale belonging to his opposite number, Steyn, the 37-year-old's kick securing a 19-16 win.
Scots make their mark
Duhan van der Merwe played all three Tests in South Africa
Not many will lament the passing of this tour. Most rugby lovers have a grisly fascination with the physicality of the game, but this series spent much of its time on the dark side instead of in the light. Farewell.
The eight Scots who went there will come back better players. Inevitably, their tours varied. Stuart Hogg became a Test Lion in games one and two and that was everything he wanted. Missing game three would have hurt. Duhan van der Merwe was a surprise call in the first place and yet he started all three Tests.
He spent much of those games chasing kicks and competing for ball in the air. The very thing that he's most devastating at - carrying - was something he could do little of given the scarcity of possession he received.
Ali Price started two Tests and played in a third off the bench. A tremendous step forward. Chris Harris had a fine tour. Rory Sutherland is a two-Test Lion. Zander Fagerson didn't make it that far, but Fagerson's competition at tighthead was of a very serious order.
The high hopes for Hamish Watson were never realised. He was outstanding in the early games, but there was only a fleeting glimpse of him in the big stuff. He escaped a yellow card in the first Test but didn't escape the video review. He wasn't seen again in Tests two and three. Life with the Lions is a savage business.
And then there was Russell. Injured early on. A forgotten man. The tour went on without him and, at times, you had to remind yourself that he was still there, still training, still hoping. He got his chance and he deserved it. Amid the carnage he was a joy.
In the end, he smiled. That smile probably masked other emotions, but that's the way he rolls. The Lions will be back, of course. The show moves on to Australia in 2025. It's too early to speculate as to who will make it. Give it a month. Maybe two.
This trek might have been a wearying one, but the greatness of the Lions is its ability to overcome disappointment and failure and go again in an absolute blaze of excitement. Scottish players have had a taste of it now. The next generation have role models to follow.