Phil Vickery - News

The game in Pretoria was brutal to play in and, from an emotional point of view, just as difficult to watch.

Until those final desperate minutes, I had no doubt that the guys who went out to face down the Springboks had done enough to clinch victory.

I would go further and say that every one of those Lions who played in that match can be hugely proud of what he did in circumstances as demanding as any you could get on a rugby field, even including a World Cup final.

You expect effort. You expect spirit. But it went beyond either of these essential qualities. Everyone had to dig as deeply into himself as he had ever done for what became a test of will, as much as a test of strength.

So no messing around, no backing off – it was face to face and toe to toe. We were totally determined to stand up to the bullying tactics and physical threat always posed by the Boks.

This we did by giving back to them some of what they like to dish out to us or whoever their opponents are. Watching from the stand, I felt we more than matched them until, in their desperation, they came on so strongly in the second half.

This meant standing our ground and not falling prey to any cheap shots but also relying on the referee to sort out anything untoward. Then, though, there was the Schalk Burger incident with Luke Fitzgerald.

I have to say, from where I was I could not see what happened but I have heard plenty about it since. It is simple really – if Burger did what is alleged, he should have had a red card. If he did not, he would have been cleared by the disciplinary process anyway.