Dallaglio’s extraordinary appetite for the fray marked him out as the Lions’ most implacable warrior but he also brought judgement
Posted in General on 16. Aug, 2010
Dallaglio’s extraordinary appetite for the fray marked him out as the Lions’ most implacable warrior, but he also brought judgement and intelligence to his role. After two storming Tests on the blind-side flank, he pulled on the No 8 shirt in Johannesburg and performed even better. Shrewd kicking game, too.Lawrence DallaglioThe most influential forward in the pride – and that includes Martin Johnson, the captain. With a titan like Os du Randt in the opposing front row, the Lions needed foot-soldiers in the trenches who would stand up to be counted.Wood was always the first on his feet, staring the Boks square in the eyeballs, inviting them to do their worst and promising retaliation in spades. Absolutely brilliant.Keith WoodUtterly irrepressible, a force-of-nature hooker with a zest for rugby at its meanest and toughest. He went face to face with Mark Andrews, the king-pin lock from Natal, worked his way under his skin and cleaned him out.
England’s Simon Shaw travelled to South Africa as a stone-cold Test certainty, only to find his Irish rival soaring higher in the line-outs, scrummaging his socks off at every set-piece and galloping faster around the pitch than anyone could possibly have predicted. Big tackle counts and safe hands are part and parcel of the modern prop’s game and Smith is very definitely a mod.Jeremy DavidsonA stunning realisation of a rich, rich talent. But the prop from nowhere can undoubtedly play and he deserved his full hand of Test selections over the more obvious claims of Graham Rowntree and Jason Leonard. His heart-in-the-mouth raids on the Springbok 22 in the decisive closing minutes of the Durban epic were priceless.Tom SmithNot so much the quiet man of the tour as the Trappist of the tour; by all accounts, he says less on the pitch than off it, which is quite an achievement.
Made the cleanest break of the series when he did get on at Ellis Park.Gregor TownsendMuch maligned by some, but the Lions missed his wit and ingenuity when the Boks began to roar in Johannesburg. He was never likely to prove himself the most complete outside-half in the world, but his heavily stylised approach, allied to unusually rich reserves of raw guts, made him a Test certainty. Poor Os du Randt still has the bruises, if anyone needs confirmation.Allan BatemanA marginal winner of the award for the unluckiest tourist, just sneaking ahead of Eric Miller and Barry Williams on countback. Bateman was probably – no, certainly – the most complete midfield performer among the Lions but missed out on all but the second half of the final Test through injury problems and the more particular gifts possessed by Gibbs and Guscott. The Boks must be wishing the disciplinary panel in Pretoria had suspended Gibbs for rather more than one game following his punching excesses against Northern Transvaal. A ban for the remainder of the tour would have been about right from South Africa’s point of view, for when it came to the Tests the Swansea centre established himself as a dominant force.
In addition, he again proved himself without peer as a drift defender at the top level.Scott GibbsOutstanding. Superficially speaking, Guscott’s series- clinching drop goal at King’s Park was an all-too-rare example of his instinctive genius for the game, but the man’s mere presence on the rugby fields of South Africa was more than enough to give the opposition a severe dose of the heebie-geebies. One of a close-knit party’s central figures.Jeremy GuscottThe legend grows and deepens. Quite where the tourists would have been without his well-nigh flawless kicking is anyone’s guess, but it is safe to assume they would not be celebrating a famous series victory.John BentleyForget the try he handed Andre Joubert on a plate in the Durban Test; Bentley was never likely to emerge from the series as a great defensive wing. The contribution he made to the party, both as a bold and daring runner on the pitch and as a hugely entertaining and colourful character off it, far outweighed the odd missed tackle or perilous suicide run. Forwards: A Blades, C Blades, M Brial, M Caputo, M Cockbain, T Coker, J Eales (capt), M Foley, D Manu, E McKenzie, G Morgan, B Robinson, D Wilson.Ten players who rose to new heights on the South Africa tourNeil JenkinsNo one’s idea of a world-class full-back, least of all his own, but with immense application and a liberal measure of pure courage he became a gamble worth taking for the Lions selectors.