Rugby: Highs and lows of the Lions tour

Springbok prop Tendai Mtawarira dismantled the Lions scrum in the first test in Durban. Photo / Getty Images

The British & Irish Lions' tour of South Africa ended yesterday with the visitors restoring some much-needed pride in the red jersey with a 29-9 victory in the third test at Ellis Park. The Independent's Chris Hewett looks back at the highs and lows of what was an unforgettable tour.

Best Lions of the tour
Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, Jamie Roberts and Mike Phillips among the backs; Simon Shaw and Tom Croft among the forwards, with Matthew Rees and Adam Jones as the big improvers. In terms of consistency, the Lions were far more effective when they had the ball than when they were competing for it. Had Shaw and Jones played in the first test, who knows what might have happened?

Best Springboks of the tour
Fourie du Preez, the halfback, and Heinrich Brussow, the flanker. Everyone knew about the former, but the latter came as quite a shock - especially when he played for Free State in Bloemfontein and nearly beat the Lions single-handed.

Stellar performance of the tour
Tendai Mtawarira, the Springbok prop colloquially known as "Beast", looked pretty special during the first test in Durban, dismantling Phil Vickery at the scrum and smashing all and sundry in the tackle.

There was a similarly hot performance in the third test from the Irish No 8 Jamie Heaslip, whose failure to land the man-of-the-match award will forever remain a mystery. But the prize goes to Simon Shaw for his career-defining effort in Pretoria. It is impossible to believe a Lions second-row forward ever played better, Willie John McBride or no Willie John McBride.

Twin comebacks of the tour
Phil Vickery and Ugo Monye were the men most publicly implicated in the hugely expensive first test defeat at Kings Park: Vickery because he conceded early penalties at the set-piece, Monye because he fluffed two try-scoring opportunities - one of them an absolute gimme. Recalled for the third test because of injuries to others, both men seized the moment and left Ellis Park with reputations restored, if not enhanced. Monye's 70-metre interception try was a joyous moment, as was Vickery's mangling of the "Beast" at the first scrum.

One-liners of the tour
That man Vickery again. "You always know when you've had a sh** game when your mum and your missus send you a text saying they still love you," he said, reminiscing on events at Kings Park. This little gem was matched, in impact if not in emotional intelligence, by the Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. "Do we want to be a part of rugby, or do we want to go to the nearest ballet shop, get some nice tutus and get some dancing going on?" he asked his audience during a discussion on the violent transgressions of two of his forwards, Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha. "There will be no eye-gouging, no tackling, no nothing, and then you'll enjoy it."