The British & Irish Lions showed great adaptability and skill as they blew the Sharks out of the water in back-to-back matches, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.
In a tumultuous week of Covid chaos, the tourists rolled with the punches exceptionally well to continue their march to the much-anticipated three-Test series set to kick-off on 24 July.
Wednesday’s second tour fixture against the Sharks at Ellis Park was delayed by an hour to receive the results of the latest batch of Covid tests. Despite two positive cases coming back in the British & Irish Lions camp, the match was given the go-ahead, however, Warren Gatland was forced to overhaul his side.
Impressively, the last-minute changes had no ill effect on the well-drilled Northern Hemisphere all-stars as they stormed to a dominant 54-7 win. The KwaZulu-Natalians got a second crack at the British & Irish Lions three days later at Loftus Versfeld, where they replaced the Bulls, who were ruled out due to Covid infections.
Both Gatland and Sharks coach Sean Everitt rang the changes – over 10 each – and matters were deadlocked at 26-all before the contest was spoiled by an elbow strike by Jaden Hendrikse on Liam Williams, which saw the Sharks scrumhalf red-carded in the 45th minute. The moment of madness opened the floodgates with the British & Irish Lions romping to a 71-31 rout.
In the spirit of the upcoming Olympic Games, these stars in Red and White grabbed gold, silver and bronze in the respective games:
Midweek Match
Duhan van der Merwe
Why there’s a portion of local fans criticizing the former Junior Springbok star for playing for “the enemy” this deep into the professional era is beyond me. For those immature fans, it would’ve been a particularly bitter pill to swallow that Van der Merwe was the best South African on the field.
The herculean winger carried on where he left off from his dream maiden Six Nations campaign for Scotland as he ran in a hat-trick of tries in a Man of the Match performance in his British & Irish Lions debut. It was an impressive display of not only his prolific power, as he made light work of defenders – often two in quick succession – but his exceptional pace as well as the 1.93m, 105kg behemoth blasted past Manie Libbok in their race to Owen Farrell’s clever kick, dribbled ahead and dove onto the ball for his second try.
The George-born anomaly was a force on defence as well, manhandling ball carriers and making an important tackle on Thaakir Abrahams when the Sharks speedster threatened to score from a counter-attack shortly before the half-time break.
Josh Adams
Talk about carrying on where you left off! The rampant Welshman simply can’t stop scoring. He might’ve switched positions, moving from the left wing to fullback, but he remained lethal as he dipped in and out like a fighter pilot to add a hat-trick to the four tries he scored in the tour-opener.
The predatory outside back showed good ball skills to stick a one-handed take of Louis Rees-Zammit’s pass to open the scoring after just two minutes and continued to cause chaos with his lightning speed and footwork. At this rate, he’s on the fast track to a tour try-scoring record and a place in the run-on side for the Test series.
Luke Cowan-Dickie
Cowan-Dickie delivered a classic hard-nosed hooker performance. The spotlight was on the versatile England front-rower, who’s equally adept at prop and No.2, as he was the subject of a social media storm going into the match after former England scrumhalf Kyran Bracken objected to his selection just a week after having suffered a major concussion in Exeter Chiefs’ loss to Harlequins in the Premiership final.
If anything, the double-tough 28-year-old looked supercharged as he showed plenty of mongrel. He carried and defended with vigour, won a maul turnover on his line and supplemented his ultra-combative outing in open play with exemplary lineout throwing.
Weekend Rematch
Jamie George
George grabbed the reins with both hands and produced a quintessential captain’s innings, which he’ll look back on fondly when his playing days are over. The England hooker was in vintage form, getting down in dirty (legally) in the trenches, finding his jumpers in the lineouts and scoring a brace.
Moreover, the 30-year-old was the cool head the British & Irish Lions required in the most testing period of their tour to date when the young Sharks took it to them physically and matched their four tries in the first half. Talismanic and clinical, he did his chances of starting against the Springboks the world of good.
Tadhg Beirne
The Munster man turned in a monstrous effort. Such an abrasive ball-carrier, he made metres in contact that few others would’ve. Tough, tenacious and tireless, the barnstorming Beirne went a mile-a-minute and maintained that extraordinary pace and output throughout.
The dynamic Irish loose forward bashed the ball up 10 times and was rewarded with a double, while on defence, he did his thing at the breakdown, snatching a memorable turnover, and made some big hits. He may well have secured his place in the matchday 23 for the Test series.
Duhan van der Merwe – Player of the Week
Given the opponents, it’s ironic that the giant No.11 was the one who resembled a shark smelling blood in the water. Not satisfied with his midweek mayhem, Van der Merwe immediately stamped his authority on the rematch, spotting and exploiting a mismatch to surge through before offloading to centre Chris Harris for the opening score.
In a backline-best 11 carries, he beat an unrivalled seven defenders, made 42 metres and crossed the whitewash for a fourth time to earn the mantle of our Player of the Week. Fellow flyer Anthony Watson also had a fantastic game, scoring two well-taken tries, while Elliot Daly was influential and came away with the Man of the Match award.
The versatile midfielder, who did a solid job covering scrumhalf while Conor Murray was in the sin bin, made a few mistakes, though, most glaringly, the botched pass that gifted the Sharks their first try.
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