The Lions did not have a good game against the Blues. Photo / Herald on Sunday
It started as a pre-season whispering campaign that quickly gathered momentum: the South African teams were set for a big Super 14.
Not the Lions though.
It's never the Lions. It doesn't matter whether they're called Transvaal, Gauteng Lions, Golden Cats, Cats or, as they are now, just
the plain old common garden variety Lions, the results were nearly always the same and it was never pretty.
While wins against the Crusaders and the Hurricanes at home hinted at better days it would all change when they hopped into that big iron bird. But dramatic wins at Perth and Brisbane scotched that theory.
There was just one gorilla to shake off their back - could they win in New Zealand?
No.
It took only three minutes to work that one out; five minutes to confirm. They didn't like the sight of a fresh-legged behemoth Nick Williams running at them like man who'd spent too long in a cage. They didn't fancy the hard graft that comes with plugging the gaps the Blues' snappy handling created. Most of all, it was patently obvious they never really fancied their chances of winning.
Coach Eugene Eloff was disarmingly frank post-match. His side made too many mistakes, turned over the ball too often too early, missed too many tackles and were basically outplayed from point A to just short of point B.
But one thing they didn't have, according to the coach, is a mental block when it comes to winning in New Zealand.
"It's like when people say teams have a mental block about playing at Ellis Park," Eloff said. "It's just a perception. I knew it would be a much more physical encounter... we just came up against the form side of the competition."
By some margin too. "Easily the best side we've played," he said.
Eloff believes the Blues in some ways reflect the world order.
"New Zealand are favourites to win the World Cup," he said. "They've got the depth, the players."
But he added a cautionary note. "World Cups are funny things."
They are. Far funnier than Super 14s which tend to play to script. The script was meant to change this year but the Blues, or more particularly the Lions, showed that until South African teams win big games against good sides in New Zealand, we're in for more of the same.
