The darling of Loftus Versfeld, and indeed now also the entire South Africa, is replacement flyhalf Morné Steyn, who slotted an injury-time penalty to give the Springboks a 28-25 victory over the British and Irish Lions in Pretoria on Saturday... and also an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

However, the victory was shrouded in controversy - from the first minute to the last.

With the likelihood of citings for eye gouging and punching hanging over the Springbok camp like a looming Highveld thunder storm, South Africa will go into the final Test in Johannesburg next week with the knowledge that they had avenged the series defeat of 12 years ago.

But for the next few days the headlines will have two tones - one about Steyn's heroics, who came on in the final quarter to slot two penalties, two conversions and play a huge role in two of the Boks' three tries.

In the end the Boks outscored their opponents by three tries to one, but they may have been a touch fortunate.

The other set of headlines will be about a spiteful match in which the Boks tried to bully the Lions into submission.

The match was not a minute old when flank Schalk Burger, playing in his first Test of the year after a lengthy injury lay-off and making his 50th international appearance, was yellow carded for eye gouging. There is little doubt he will be cited and could face a lengthy ban - with 12 weeks the norm for such vile actions.

But the Boks, who seemed intent on re-establishing their reputation as the thugs of world rugby, were not deterred by the sin-binning of the flank. He was hardly back on the field when lock Bakkies Botha was penalised for punching, while there were a number of other flare-ups in a very spiteful first half.

The Boks clearly seem distracted after Burger's yellow card, as the Lions took the fight to the South Africans... literally.

The only difference is that the Boks were penalised more often for their transgressions.

The Lions also played a very a high-paced game from the outset, running at the out-of-shape Bok defensive line and often looking very dangerous.

Early in the second the Lions found themselves in the farcical situation where two of their props went off - Adam Jones, with a shoulder injury, and Gethin Jenkins, the second time in the game for blood. It meant uncontested scrums, a shocker for a Test match of this magnitude.

But it mattered not, the Boks now took control and when Steyn made his appearance on the field the nature of the match changed. The tiring Lions just ran out of gas as the Boks found the legs they were so desperately looking for in Durban last week.

Not even Stephen Jones's 20 points - five penalties, a drop-goal and a conversion - could save the day for the tourists - who now only have pride to play for.

The game started in shocking fashion, with Bok flank Schalk Burger yellow carded in the first minute for eye gouging an opponent.

That was followed by two more penalties to the Lions, the second of which flyhalf Stephen Jones kicked for a 3-0 lead.

And moments later there was another huge bust-up, first between Victor Matfield and Brian O'Dricoll and then the rest of the players getting involved. After a talking to by the referee the Springboks won a penalty.

But with the South Africans falling off tackles the Lions were soon back on attack - with Stephen Jones putting Rob Kearney into space and the fullback bursting through another sloppy tackle by Francois Steyn to score the opening try. Jones added the conversion and it was 10-0 in as many minutes.

Once Burger had returned to the playing field the Boks seemed to find some parity and from a line-out Fourie du Preez ran at the opposition, brilliantly drew two defenders and put JP Pietersen into space. He raced clear for the Boks' first try. Ruan Pienaar's conversion attempt hit the upright, but after 13 minutes South Africa were on the board - 5-10.

Stephen Jones landed another penalty soon afterwards, to make it 13-5 as the final quarter came to and end, as the Bok forwards continued to pile recklessly into the opposition - with the referee being very watchful and penalising every error.

Francois Steyn had a long-range shot, which was well wide of the mark, with a Stephen Jones drop-goal in the 36th minute the next score - as the Lions stretched their lead to 11 points - 16-5.

With half-time approaching and the Boks' extraordinary high error count still mounting, it looked ominous for the hosts.

Right on half-time the Boks won a penalty for obstructive running by the Lions backs and Steyn had another shot from near the halfway line - this time slotting it to give the Boks a psychological lift going into the break at 8-16.

The Boks had a chance in the 49th minute to narrow the gap, but Pienaar's radar was way off and the frustration in the Bok camp was tangible at this stage.

Three minutes later the Boks won another penalty and still they persisted with Pienaar, who again pushed his kick wide.

By now the cries of 'we want Steyn' rang out loudly, as the crowd cried out for Morné Steyn being brought on in place of Pienaar.

In fact coach Peter de Villiers did the same as last week, making some strange substitutions - Jaque Fourie at inside centre, Danie Rossouw at flank and Andries Bekker at lock for Bakkies Botha.

The penalty finally dropped for the Bok coach as Stephen Jones slotted a third penalty in the 61st minute - to make it 19-8 - as he brought Steyn on.

Brian O'Driscoll blindsided Danie Rossouw - forcing the replacement off - bringing Heinrich Brüssow on in his second Test on.

And the Boks also seemed to finally find their attacking form, as Steyn put Bryan Habana into space from a set-piece move and the flying wing went over for a brilliant try. Steyn added the conversion to narrow the gap to 15-19.

And with just 12 minutes left on the clock he slotted a penalty to make it a one-point game - 18-19.

However, that penalty was nullified moments later when Burger went offside and Stephen Jones slotted it for a 22-18 lead.

Going into the final 10 minutes the Boks won a penalty and opted for a line-out, showing their eagerness to attack. From the set-piece they took it left, where Steyn handed off and opponent and made good ground, then when back right where Jaque Fourie brushed aside an opponent and went over in the tackle.

The call went to the TMO, who had several looks at it and took his good time. But the call went in favour of Fourie. With Steyn slotting the conversion the Boks finally hit the lead, 25-22, with six minutes left on the clock.

But with four minutes left the Lions won a penalty for a high tackle and Stephen Jones slotted it to level the scores at 25-all.

With time up on the clock the Boks won a penalty for an air tackle and Steyn had a shot from over 50 metres and he slotted with space to spare - giving the Boks 28-25 victory and a series win.

Man of the match: There will be those looking at Lions like Tom Croft, Simon Shaw and Andre Sheridan, who took the fight to the Boks. However, on the day the undoubted hero and match-winner was Springbok replacement flyhalf Morné Steyn - who gets our awards.

Moment of the match: There were a number of crucial moments - Schalk Burger's yellow card in the first minute and the second scrum in about 20th minute, when the Boks were penalised for pushing up. Those were the intricacies that go into making rugby the game it is. But our award goes to Morné Steyn's injury-time penalty from 53 metres out - the match-winning score.

Villains of the match: This is simple. It goes to flank Schalk Burger for his act of eye gouging and Bakkies Botha for punching.

Scorers:

For South Africa:
Tries: Pietersen, Habana, Fourie
Cons: Steyn 2
Pens: Pienaar, Steyn 2

For the British and Irish Lions:
Try: Kearney
Con: S Jones
Pens: S Jones 5
DG: S Jones

Yellow card: Schalk Burger (South Africa, 1st min - foul play, eye gouging)

Teams:

South Africa: 15 Frans Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adi Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (captain), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Deon Carstens, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Heinrich Brüssow, 21 Jaque Fourie, 22 Morné Steyn.

British and Irish Lions: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Paul O'Connell (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees , 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Sheridan, 17 Ross Ford, 18 Alun Wyn Jones, 19 Martyn Williams, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Shane Williams

Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)
Assistant referees: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
TMO: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
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