Donal Lenihan: Lions loss will haunt Warren Gatland for a long time to come

What will prove the signature moment from this tour? What will 2021 be remembered for? Sadly, it may well be Rassie Erasmus’s 62-minute video rant that ultimately proved so influential. How sad is that?

Liam Williams dejected after the Lions lost to South Africa. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

All things being equal, Saturday’s deciding test match would have been played out in a full house of 94,736 fanatical Springbok and Lions fans at the FNB Stadium in Soweto — not only the venue for the 2010 Fifa World Cup final but the site of Nelson Mandela’s first speech in Johannesburg after his release from prison in 1990.

That would have been some climax to this tour.