Shane Byrne on 2nd test: O'Gara's folly costs Lions dearly

June 29th,2009

Author: Shane Byrne
Final Year: 1989
Biography: Shane Byrne (1989) won 41 rugby caps for Ireland in 2005 he travelled to New Zealand with the Lions where he featured in all three tests. He retired from professional rugby in 2007 when he returned from playing with Saracens in England.He recently hung up his boots permanently, after spending the last two seasons with Blackrock, where he started playing senior rugby 18 years ago! Shane is currently Head Of Operations (Ireland), at Global Development Group and resides in Wicklow.
URL: http://blog.ireland.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=itb_shanebyrne

Oh why, Ronan, why?!

Let’s get this straight, just in case you don’t understand what Ronan did.

If ROG had kicked the ball into touch (like what his other team mates were telling him to do), there were 30 seconds left on the clock, there would have been no time for the 'Boks to take the lineout, the hooter would have gone and we would have had a great final show down on Saturday.

Lions supporters raging at ROG

Out and about after the game, down here in South Africa, it was clear that he has been put on the most unpopular list by the Lions supporters and the most loved by the South Africans!

In truth I don’t know what to do here - do you attack him by saying he was on the pitch five minutes, he missed a tackle for the try and gave away the penalty that lost the test series for the Lions, or do you pity him?

Ronan would have been thrilled to be getting on to the pitch, so would his parents, who were there also, along with his wife and twin babies....nightmare.

No professional player decides to miss a tackle, or lose a game, but he is one of the most experienced players on the tour and should have known better, full stop!

Huge commitment from both sides - five Lions taken to hospital

That was one hell of a game, the commitment shown from both sides was total.

On the Lions side alone, five guys went to hospital after the game with various serious injuries.

There is no doubt, that as the injuries mounted up, the momentum started to fall away from our boys, the South African forwards were dead on their feet and suffering at the scrum.

Being put under pressure at scrum time is seriously strength-sapping and when they went uncontested, it suited them.

Boks used bench better

They used their bench better than the Lions, making their pack more mobile, meanwhile we took Wallace off! He should have stayed and one of the front row should have gone.

We were very light on the bench in the backs, I still have no clue why Williams was put on the bench. I thought D'Arcy or Flutey should have been there.

And I've already talked about Hook being in, ahh hindsight!

We did make it hard on ourselves in the second half, mainly, through poor kicking.

Box kicking poor

Philips' box kicking, an option that was way over used, was bad. It travelled too far, giving the wings no chance to compete.

Why did we keep going down the short side so much? When we went wide it worked and going blind a couple of times only let them get organised.

Ronan’s mistake wasn’t the only one that was made late in the game, which played into the 'Boks hands. There was a touch missed from a penalty.

Brian was clearly out of his head when one of the tries was scored down his channel.

Paddy watch

Our guys in the first half were so important to the game.

Rob Kearney had the game of his life, catching, tackling and attacking. One missed touch kick aside he must have been a man of the match contender. Let's hope his form continues, we’re going to need him on Saturday

Tommy Bowe, one of the guys gone to hospital with a suspected fractured elbow, did everything that was expected of him. Made a good break at the start and took a ball with Habana on him brilliantly.

Missed tackle from Luke costly

Luke had a mixed bag, did well with ball in hand and was always busy, but was shown up very badly for their first try. He just never stepped in to cover his channel. Also got stepped a couple of times but still didn’t come out too badly.

BOD I thought was fantastic, I played with him for years and always respected his commitment, but on Saturday he took that to a new level. Unfortunately the fact that he didn’t come off did cost up that try, but on the other hand when he went off there was something missing.

Paul, as usual did his work and lead from the front but you didn’t see him too much and was totally out shone by Shaw. His presence was much better played with the ref this week.

Jamie played well, got through his work and tackled consistently, couple of good breaks off the scrum.

Wallace shines

David Wallace was brilliant, covered the ground like a thoroughbred and got in plenty of hard yards. His block down in the 1st half laid down the mark for his work rate all game, shouldn’t have been taken off.

There was so much good in this game, that it is really hard to understand how the Lions lost it, it's going to be really hard battle in the third test.

To see what team they will be able to pick is the first thing, one good thing, maybe, is the fact it looks likely that John Hayes will start his first Lions test, good news.