Boks escape Lions' jaws

A stunning second half fightback saw the Lions fall agonisingly short of denying South Africa a narrow victory in a thrilling first Test in Durban on Saturday.

An early try from Springbok skipper John Smit plus penalties from fly-half Ruan Pienaar and full-back Francois Steyn saw the Boks open up a commanding 19-7 first-half lead.

But, with their pack bossing things up front and the game seemingly won, the hosts sat back in the second and soon found themselves on the receiving end of a brutal onslaught from the resurgent Lions.

Scores either side of half time by flanker Tom Croft and a try close to the death by scrum-half Mike Phillips took the visitors to within five points of the world champions.

But despite a frantic final five minutes that saw the Lions launch repeated attacks on a tiring Springbok defence, the hosts managed to cling on for the whistle.

Delightful

Lions fly half Stephen Jones missed a long-range penalty kick from wide on the left two minutes into the game before Smit struck the first blow on the five-minute mark when the Lions were turned over at their first lineout.

After moving the ball left, a delightful chip from Pienaar sent Ugo Monye scampering back to his line to deny JP Pietersen in the right corner.

The hosts, smelling blood, piled on the pressure and when the ball was shifted wide from the scrum the skipper crashed over. Pienaar added the extras to open up a 7-0 lead.

Two minutes later and Monye briefly silenced the Durban crowd after latching onto the ball from a Lions scrum and bursting over.

But video referee Christophe Berdos confirmed that Jean de Villiers had somehow managed to force the winger out of play and the try was disallowed.

Pienaar extended South Africa's lead with a straightforward penalty on the 10-minute mark and five minutes later Jones spurned the opportunity to close the gap with a missed effort of his own.

Steyn took the score to 13-0 with his first goal attempt at the end of the first quarter but within three minutes England flanker Tom Croft raised the stakes with a brilliantly-worked try courtesy of Jamie Roberts and Brian O'Driscoll.

This time it was the Boks who were caught napping at the lineout and Roberts exploded through the midfield before expertly offloading to O'Driscoll.

The Irish centre set off on a jinking run through the defence to feed Croft who crashed over from close range. Jones slotted over the conversion to put the Lions right back in the game.

South Africa's dominance at the scrum however began to reap dividends and a Steyn penalty from the breakdown on 27 minutes, plus further goals from Pienaar in the 31st and 34th, saw the hosts end the first half with a commanding 19-7 lead.

The Springbok pack continued to stamp it's authority on the game from the restart and within six minutes had shoved their Lions counterparts some 60 humiliating metres in a series of rolling mauls for their second try.

Heinrich Brussow was the man to finally get over the line, while Pienaar added two more to take his them to 26-7.

Frantic

The Lions, however, began to find more rhythm and their first solid scrum of the game gave O'Driscoll the opportunity to launch a scything attack.

An early tackle on Roberts gave them the penalty advantage and Mike Phillips went agonisingly close to the line at full stretch but Bakkies Botha dislodged the ball.

With the Lions forced to go for broke and push for the try, South Africa, confident that the game was in the bag, now seemed happy to concede penalties as they introduced a raft of fresh faces off the bench.

The decision to ease off the gas would cost the hosts, though, as the Lions camped themselves in the Springbok half.

And the pressure paid off 12 minutes from time when the mercurial partnership of Roberts and O'Driscoll once again provided the platform for Croft to claim his second.

Jones took the kick to close the scores to 26-14 and the visitors, sensing weakness in their opponents, began to put an increasingly tired-looking South Africa to the sword.

The Lions continued to hammer away with wave after wave of attack and it was Phillips who eventually got through with a beautiful dummy to get over on 75 minutes.

Jones slotted two more, taknig the score to 26-21 and setting up a nail-biting finale that saw the Springboks hang on to take the victory.