There are so many similarities between what happened to the Springboks last week to what happened to the Lions yesterday and it just shows what a huge mental, emotional challenge elite rugby and elite sport is.
Just imagine the colossal pressure that the South Africans would have been under at home having lost the second half 19-5 last week. While they aren’t mixing with the public because they are in a bubble, there is still social media available for all the players in the South African squad to look at.
As well as the support they are getting I’m sure there would have been some pretty raw opinions and choice words about their First Test performance. They carried all that with them into the game and turned it around hugely. They are riding a wave right now and there’s not too much they need to change.
The Lions, on the other hand, have been given the biggest whack across the face they could have imagined. In fact it’s somewhere worse than that because a whack across the face is a quick, sharp pain that you can quickly shed; they’ve had one between the legs and it’s going to ache and ache for some time and the only way it’s going to go is if they win next week.
This story is from the August 01, 2021 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the August 01, 2021 edition of The Rugby Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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