'Sluggish' Lions are saved by O'Connell

Royal XV 25 British & Irish Lions 37

(DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES)

Paul O'Connell and company may or may not ascend to legendary status over the coming weeks – as the tour manager Gerald Davies, among the most lionised of Lions, remarked a few days ago, it is far too early to be worrying about that sort of thing – but there is no doubting their honesty.

O'Connell himself described this opening effort here in Rustenburg on Saturday as "sluggish"; the assistant coach Rob Howley opted for "disjointed": the tight-head prop Phil Vickery talked poetically of the squad receiving a "good kick up the arse". Not a living soul had the temerity to suggest that this was anywhere near a half-decent performance.

For which we can all be truly thankful. There may have been worse first-day displays down the decades – the 9-6 defeat by Western Transvaal in this same neck of the woods in 1955 cannot have been much to write home about – but this was right up there. Or, to put it more accurately, down there. To quote Vickery once more: "Things will get more difficult, harder and harder, as we go through this trip, so if we're not a hell of a lot better against the Golden Lions on Wednesday night, we'll be in a lot of trouble."

First, the good news, which should not eat up too much of the day. O'Connell, the captain, did everything that could reasonably have been expected of him in the second half, having taken the first half off. There was a Munsterish intensity about his ball-carrying, a confidence about his line-out work and pleasing evidence of his leadership skills as he set about pulling his side back from the brink at 13-25 with a dozen minutes of normal time left.

He had scratched one of his corneas and was in a significant degree of discomfort, yet out of his one good eye he saw that things needed addressing with urgency, and that the best man to address them was him. At the last knockings, he was terrific.

Lee Byrne and Jamie Roberts, two of the Welshmen in an all-Celtic back division, made early pitches for Test inclusion – the first with an accomplished display at full-back that covered all the bases and yielded a game-turning try; the second with some powerful route-one surges that reduced the South Africans, who rather fancy themselves in the machismo department, to the Highveld equivalent of seven-stone weaklings. There was also a spot-on kicking display from Ronan O'Gara, although the outside-half's low resistance to the effects of altitude was a worry, and some aggressive scrummaging, not least from Andrew Sheridan, who stayed on for the duration despite developing blisters the size of a small game reserve.

As for the rest, the least said the better. Yet if things are not said now, those who expect the Springboks to win the Test series 3-0 without breaking sweat will soon look as if they are on the inside track. The Lions were weak at the breakdown, where middle-ranking provincial players like Wilhelm Koch, Devon Raubenheimer and the highly impressive No 8 Jonathan Mokuena gave them a nasty little reality check.

And they were less than proficient at the base of the scrum, partly because Mike Blair found his opposite number Sarel Pretorius so difficult to handle, and partly because the ball provided by his forwards was frequently worse than useless. As for the handling and decision-making out wide, the phrase "dog's breakfast" could not be bettered.

Poor Keith Earls, the young Munster centre who will continue to be the junior member of the party until Leigh Halfpenny gets himself out here, had the worst of it. Four knock-ons in the opening quarter, a couple of them horribly public, left him looking very homesick indeed. "The Lions jersey does funny things to people," a sympathetic Howley said yesterday. "It can make you feel 6ft 8in, or leave you struggling to get into a game. We've all had matches we'd rather forget, and the thing to do with Keith is nip it in the bud by talking it through immediately. I'll be having a coffee with him this afternoon." A stiff brandy might have been better.

Earls was not alone, though: Shane Williams, of all people, was out of sorts too. The Lions were so far off the pace in the first half that Tommy Bowe's injury-time try, the result of his own clever running angle and O'Gara's sweetly timed inside pass, was more than they deserved. Even with O'Gara's conversion they were eight points adrift at the interval, having conceded a very good try to Koch and a laughably soft one to Rayno Barnes, whose trundle into the wide blue yonder from the back of a driving maul left the defence coach Shaun Edwards in the poorest of humours.

In dire need of a try early in the second half, they looked to Williams to deliver. The vertically challenged maestro had his opportunities, but messed up both of them in a fog of imprecision. When the Royals prop Bees Roux then put himself on the end of a long break by Raubenheimer to cross against the run of play, it looked for all the world as though the game had gone.

"It was very definitely a body blow," admitted Byrne, who appeared to absorb it personally before retaliating with a vengeance. Within seconds, the full-back pulled the Lions back into the contest by hoisting a high kick downfield and capitalising on some hesitancy in the Royals' defence to prod the ball forward before touching down. O'Gara converted, added a penalty and, with O'Connell working overtime both at close quarters and in open field, proceeded to turn the screw with some excellent tactical kicking.

At last, the Lions were playing with authority. Heavy pressure earned Alun-Wyn Jones a close-range try in the 81st minute, while O'Connell and Martyn Williams presented O'Gara with a wrap-up score deep in stoppage time. It flattered the Lions. As the saying goes, between flattery and admiration there flows a river of contempt.

Royal XV: Tries Koch, Barnes, Roux; Conversions Olivier, Viljoen; Penalties Olivier 2. Lions: Tries Bowe, Byrne, A W Jones, O'Gara; Conversions O'Gara 4; Penalties O'Gara 3.

Royal XV: R Jeacocks (Leopards); E Seconds (Griquas), D Van Rensburg (Leopards), H Coetzee, B Basson; N Olivier, S Pretorius; A Buckle, R Barnes, B Roux (all Griquas), R Mathee (Leopards), J Lombaard (Griquas), W Koch (Leopards, capt), D Raubenheimer, J Mokuena (both Griquas). Replacements: S Roberts (Griquas) for Buckle, 53; R Viljoen (Griquas) for Olivier, 56; R Landman (Leopards) for Lombaard, 56; P Van der Westhuizen (Leopards) for Barnes, 71; R W Kember (Leopards) for Raubenheimer, 71; J Coetzee (Pumas) for Pretorius, 73.

British and Irish Lions: L Byrne (Wales); T Bowe (Ireland), K Earls (Ireland), J Roberts (Wales), S Williams (Wales); R O'Gara (Ireland), M Blair (Scotland); A Sheridan (England), M Rees (Wales), A Jones (Wales), S Shaw (England), P O'Connell (Ireland, capt), J Worsley (England), M Williams (Wales), D Wallace (Ireland). Replacements: R Flutey (England) for Earls, 68; M Phillips (Wales) for Blair, 68; P Vickery (England) for A Jones, 68; AW Jones (Wales) for Shaw 68; J Heaslip (Ireland) for Wallace, 68; L Mears (England) for Rees, 73.

Referee: M Jonker (South Africa).

Two up, two down: Four Lions with reason to remember Rustenburg

The Goods

Lee Byrne

If the Springboks are struggling at full-back in the absence of Conrad Jantjes, the Lions have surely found theirs. The Welshman kicked long in the thin air, performed well under the high ball and attacked with imagination – not least in scoring a vital solo try in the second half that helped save the tourists' blushes.

Ronan O'Gara

The Irish outside-half was responsible for two of the most important moments on Saturday, creating a first-half try for Tommy Bowe with a clever inside pass and scoring one of his own at the death when he was sent clear by Martyn Williams' trademark pass out of contact. More importantly still, he did not miss a single shot at the sticks, ending with 22 points.

The Bads

Keith Earls

The inexperienced centre from Limerick was clearly nervous, his butterfingered handling betraying him on four occasions in the opening 20 minutes. There were occasional signs of his fast-stepping attacking game, but it will take a strong mind to rise above the trials and tribulations here.

Mike Blair

A late call-up to the squad, the Scotland captain had a golden opportunity to press his claims to the problem position of scrum-half this weekend. Unfortunately, the chance slipped him by: his poor performance contributed to a mixed showing all-round for the Lions backs. Hounded by his opposite number, he struggled for fluency in the passing department and failed to stamp his personality on proceedings.