DOES RUGBY get any more devastating? I doubt it. This was the epitome of sporting cruelty. We deserved to win, we should be heading off to Johannesburg level in the series and confident of our chances of making it 2-1 on Saturday. The fact that we're not is surreal.
Let's clear up a few things. Schalk Burger should have been sent off for gouging Luke Fitzgerald. It was a red card, plain and simple. I spoke to Stuart Dickinson, the touch judge, after the match and he said Burger was going to be in trouble for tha
t incident. The game was a minute old and he should have been off.
That said, we don't use it as an excuse because we were good enough to beat 15 Springboks, never mind 14.
Next, the winning penalty. I don't blame Rog (Ronan O'Gara]. When the ball came to him I was willing him to kick it out of the ground. I was thinking that a draw keeps us alive in the series. We couldn't win it but we could level it so I was wanting him to put boot to ball and rifle it into the stand.
Rog was looking to win the match. He was trying to be positive. He chipped ahead and kept his eyes on the ball and clipped the guy, Fourie du Preez. Nightmare. I was sitting next to Gordon D'Arcy in the stand and as Morne Steyn was preparing to kick he had his jumper pulled up over his eyes. I felt like doing the same. It was Steyn's home ground. I feared the worst. Over it went and down we went. I still think it's incredible we lost.
We were so dominant in the game for 40 minutes. We battered them up front and they didn't know what hit them. Then it turned, a bit like last week in reverse. Our guys started getting injured. We lost our props and that was a horrendous blow because Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones were causing damage. You see, those two getting on top of their opposite numbers wasn't just a physical thing, it was also a mental thing.
For the South Africans to be losing the scrum battle after what they did to us last week was a psychological blow. Doubts start to enter your head when you start losing these one-on-one battles. Had our props not got injured and had we not gone to uncontested scrums then the Boks would have been in a bad place.
It was a game of so many turning points. Losing Drico (O'Driscoll] and Jamie Roberts with about 15 minutes to go was a savage blow because we had to scramble then. Stephen Jones and Tommy Bowe went into the midfield. They're brilliant players but they didn't wake up yesterday morning thinking they'd end up as the centre partnership, that's for sure.
South Africa's bench was pivotal. Heinrich Brussow was a massive influence in the Springbok comeback. He made the breakdowns an absolute mess and grabbed the momentum across to the South African side. Some player.
Jaque Fourie came on and scored the try in the corner which sickened us. And Morne Steyn came in and kicked every goal he got whereas before Ruan Pienaar was missing them. Those three subs did it for them, just.
South Africa have won two Tests they shouldn't have. The only thing we can do now is avoid them getting a third. We have to be motivated by the fear of a whitewash. It would be the final twist of the knife. Everybody's heartbroken but we cannot allow them to go three in a row. It would be a travesty.
The South African fans will be cockier than ever now. We heard some of it right after the game, some of the crowd shouting that they were gonna stuff us in Jo'burg as well. The gloating was a little too much for my liking.
We've got a mountain to climb because we've got injuries. I'm not sure what the story is with Gethin and Adam, Drico and Jamie but some of them will struggle to make it next week. If I was prop I'd be confident of getting a game. Alas, I'm a lock and even though my suspension will be up in time for the third Test I'll hardly get a look-in. Shawsy (Simon Shaw] was fantastic and there's no reason to change things there.
My ban was a joke. That's the only word for it. It was ridiculous. They said it was a dangerous tackle. Well, in that case, there are going to be suspensions in every single game we play from now on because tackles like that are made all the time. I came back from the hearing and told the boys that they'd given me a week and they thought I was winding them up.
We could have appealed it. But I said to Geech (coach Ian McGeechan] it wouldn't do us any good. It might be disruptive on the squad and might take from our focus and I didn't want that. Better I take it on the chin than a circus developing around the camp.
Anyway, not a good week personally and collectively. I was in the dressing room afterwards when Geech came in and told the boys how proud he was of them. It was quiet in there. Horribly quiet.
The full article contains 914 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
