British and Irish Lions coach Ian McGeechan played down the impact the result will have on his Test selection, but captain on the day Ronan O'Gara said a lot of players missed out on the opportunity to put their hands up.

McGeechan and O'Gara were speaking after the Lions were undone by a late rally from the Emerging Springboks at Newlands on Tuesday night - a Danwel Demas try and a Willem de Waal touchline conversion securing a 13-all draw for the South Africans.

Both coach and captain spoke of the "disappointment" of allowing the Emerging Boks a late score to draw the match - a further setback to the tourists after having been on a six-match winning streaks, before a loss (in the first Test against the Springboks last Saturday) and Tuesday's draw.

"It was a big opportunity for a lot of guys to push management for selection and they missed out, they will be bitterly disappointed," O'Gara said of a game that was played in gale force winds and driving rain.

McGeechan referred to it as a "kicking game, played in a monsoon", but the captain still rued the "missed opportunity".

McGeechan said his team avoided a "potential banana skin" and praised the players for their attitude on the field in some very trying conditions.

Looking past the disappointment of the draw and towards Saturday's second Test against the Boks in Pretoria, McGeechan said he was happy that there "were some good performances" at Newlands.

"I feel sorry for the players who wanted to play rugby," McGeechan said of the conditions.

"We probably played too much in the second half," he added, and said he felt there was very little rugby played.

"We probably missed some opportunities that would have taken us away. We didn't lose, which is very important," the coach said.

Looking ahead to the Test McGeechan said: "We know what we want and how we want to play [against the Boks], we'll work on that this week."

O'Gara said his team went well "for most of the game", but needed to get one score further ahead to save the game.

"We hit the ground running, played well and expressed ourselves, but we didn't kick on as we should have," the captain said.

"We are disappointed, obviously, but I don't think we felt under threat by this [Emerging Boks] team.

"They came at us at the end, but I have to commend the attitude of everyone - it was extremely difficult to play in those conditions."

He felt it was one of those games were you were better off without the ball, a day when strong defences ruled.

"We could also have been a little more accurate with kicking," he said.

365

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