For a team that continues to talk about their ‘pride’ in the jersey, the British and Irish Lions have lost the respect of iafrica.com’s Rob Peters after repeatedly showing a healthy persecution complex, and a poor losing mentality…

The sooner the Lions leave South African shores the better as far as I am concerned because I am tired of listening to them bitch and complain about ‘the rub of the green going against them’, how they ‘have been playing all the rugby’, how they ‘don’t deserve to be 2-0 down’, and how all off the ball play was against them. They’re saints, these Lions – it’s always everybody else’s fault.

It would be nice if they gave the Springboks some credit… after all, the South Africans did win the series.

Well, not according to Lions coach Ian McGeechan, who claims his side are “the real winners”. I’m sorry, but ‘real winners’ acknowledge their opposition – win or lose – and McGeechan, despite all his achievements has lost my respect for his response after his team lost the series. Not that he would care…

In Durban, the Lions did well to come back against the Springboks, but still lost. In Pretoria on Saturday, they played quite brilliantly in the first half, but could not keep it going and lost to a Bok side that completed a superb comeback win. The tourists lost to a better side – simple as that.

Yet following the first Test, all the Lions could talk about was the final 20 minutes of the game, when they dominated. The same is being done after Pretoria as the Lions players and management only seem focussed on the first 40, conveniently forgetting what happened in the final half of the game when the Boks took control of proceedings, turned the screw and triumphed at the final whistle.

The Durban Test was a great start to the series with some fantastic rugby played by both sides, while this past weekend’s clash in Pretoria has to be one of the best Test matches I have witnessed in years. Both teams put in absolutely everything with neither giving an inch. There was plenty of off-the-ball as well, but from both sides…

Now, let me say that Schalk Burger’s actions were atrocious and he was damn lucky not to get a red card, and an even longer ban. But while the Lions have preferred to focus on foul play committed by the Boks, they may want to look at one or two of their own players before they cry foul.

Yes, Schalk was incredibly foolish, and there is no excuse for his actions, but there was little else you could point to that paints the Boks as villains of the piece.

Lions centre Brian O’Driscoll put in plenty of late – and high – hits with one resulting in a concussion for Bok loose forward Danie Rossouw, while Andrew Sheridan seemed more intent on sideshow scuffles than the job at hand, although maybe he figured with uncontested scrums there was nothing else for him to do…

Mike Phillips has bemoaned the Boks’ off-the-ball play, but the big Welsh scrumhalf is the last person who should be talking about it. When the Lions do it, they are tough and no-nonsense players — in fact O’Driscoll has been celebrated in the media back home for his display against the ‘bigger’ Boks — but when the Boks do it, well, then it’s dirty.

I am not for one minute saying that there was no skulduggery on behalf of the Boks, but it is a two-way street, and the Lions were certainly giving it as good as they got in Pretoria.

Yet this week we will undoubtedly continue to hear about how the Lions were hard done by, they lost the game, and don’t deserve to lose the series, while no mention will be made of the Boks, nor of their gritty win at Loftus. I doubt we will hear about Bryan Habana’s brilliance, Jaque Fourie’s sheer determination and Morne Steyn’s fantastic temperament.

Nope, we will hear a lot about Schalk — fair enough — and even more about how fantastic the Lions were in the first 40 minutes in Pretoria. We will also hear a hell of a lot of bluster from the Lions camp about how they are going to give it to the Boks in Johannesburg this Saturday.

Unfortunately I fear that, if they win, the Lions will consider it an ‘I told you so’ and will harp on about the final Test for the next 12 years, conveniently forgetting what came before. But if they lose at Coca-Cola Park — which I see happening — it will come down to their glut of injuries, refereeing decisions and the ‘rub of the green going against them’.

Perhaps the Lions will prove me wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.

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