Geech satisfied with display

LIONS coach Ian McGeechan is confident there will be no damage to morale after having victory snatched away in the dying seconds of last night’s confrontation with the Emerging Springboks.

The home side snatched a late draw with a converted try but McGeechan, while admitting that he was disappointed, described this last midweek game of the 10-game tour as a potential banana skin that the Lions had got through days before the second Test in Pretoria.

“The conditions were such that it was impossible to play rugby, but I thought the attitude of the players was commendable. It was a million miles away from the type of game we wanted to play. I wasn’t happy with the result; not when the opposition score in the last seconds, but I wasn’t disappointed with the display. It just turned into a kicking game in a hurricane, and that didn’t suit.”

Match captain Ronan O’Gara described the conditions as being “right up there with the worst I have experienced. It wasn’t a nice night to play rugby and it was very tough. It got tougher as the game went on.

“In the circumstances, the guys who played the full 80 minutes did particularly well. I felt we had control of the game but the scoreline was such that there was always a possibility they might hit us with a late one. They just happened to produce a score in the last play of the game and you would have to say they deserved a draw for that alone.”

But O’Gara joined forces with McGeechan and said the team, especially the likes of newcomers John Hayes and Tim Payne, along with Lions man-of-the-match Keith Earls, had displayed a huge honesty and unity of purpose. “The team never lost sight of what they wanted to do; it was just that the conditions didn’t allow them do it,” he said.

And he paid tribute to Earls, who has recovered from a nervy display in the opening match of the tour to produce performances that have got better and better.

“Attitude is everything in this game and that young guy has it in spades; his willingness to learn and how humble he is makes him very special. I really think he has had a brilliant tour and another guy might have fallen apart. This is really his first season in top senior rugby and to do what he has achieved in that time is remarkable, but he is the type of guy who just wants to keep learning.”

If there was a criticism of the team performance, it came from McGeechan who said: “Perhaps we tried to play too much rugby in the second half instead of nailing it down, forcing them to play the rugby from their territory, but you can’t coach a team to play rugby and then criticise them for trying to play rugby.”

And as far as the next Test is concerned, McGeechan insisted the Lions would be focused. “We know how we want to play; given the right weather conditions I hope we will be able to do that.”