Lions diary, day nine
Another quiet day, with a pair of brief and predictable press appearances and a fairly intense pre-match session in the afternoon.
Another quiet day on the Lions front, with a pair of brief and predictable press appearances and a fairly intense pre-match session in the afternoon.
Not much to do on the downtime either. The press meetings were rendered moribund at times with the collection of hangovers provided courtesy of the Lions' hospitality the night before. Everybody spent much of the day trying to make themselves feel better.
Shaun Edwards, who had protested so manfully about the answer to one of the questions costing his team a victory (he mistook Gavin Henson for Mike Phillips), was magnanimous enough to accept defeat in the 'post-quiz presser'.
“I know there's a huge series coming round between South Africa and the British and Irish Lions,” he said.
“But there was a pretty big competition last night as well. And I have to hold my hands up: it wasn't Mike Phillips. I owe you all a beer.”
Elsewhere, after the excellence and abundance of the food and drink on offer courtesy of the Lions, it was the Springboks' turn on Tuesday.
Another dinner, another… I'll use the word 'scribble' as the collective noun for a bunch of journalists answering a set of questions.
But this was far from the challenging but fair picture rounds, laugh-a-minute music section, itsy bits of Lions trivia that most would know but one or two would end up being caught out on.
No, sir, this was an intense test of the tiniest minutiae of knowledge. Who scored the third try of the second test in the 1962 series, and where along the line was the ball touched down kind of stuff.
When it comes to rugby trivia, the South Africans, it would seem, are the most sanitary nit-pickers of all.
Still, for yours truly and the one other British and Irish journalist who managed to get over the hangover from Monday and make it to the 'World of Beer' (has there ever been a more perfectly-named venue for a rugby function), we found, in the face of such exacting demands, a third-placed finish out of six for our team perfectly respectable.
The Lions trained at St. David's School in Rivonia on Wednesday. A lovely school, with immaculate grounds, but the most striking thing was the equally immaculate behaviour of the schoolboys. Polite, well-spoken, thoughtful; a credit to their country. Thinking back, the same was true of the schoolchildren in the township school
Rampant crime and poverty and many other social ills stalk South Africa, yet at school level, it seems something, somewhere, is getting done spectacularly right.
A few tour stats for the opening nine days:
Word of the tour: Housekeeping. What the Lions have branded the organisational titbits they announce before each press briefing – and what we all now brand any arrangement, whether to do with the tour or not.
Free drinks count: One has worked one's way up to 23 beers and nine bottles of red wine through taking advantage of various promotional activities and trivia triumphs.
Kilometres on the road following the team: 763.4 since touchdown at O.R.Tambo airport last Sunday.
Restaurant of the tour: The White Boy Shebeen on the corner of Katherine Road and Grayston Road in Sandton. Excellent food – and good variety – and a wine cellar rather than a list, into which your waiter lets you walk. But these are carefully-selected wines, and the only ones available to buy are at their peak every time. Magnificent relaxed atmosphere, sports on the big screen… bliss!
Best story of the tour: Warren Gatland's epic about a few All Blacks from a bygone era buying their way out of being arrested by dishing out as much free kit as they had to the police who had arrived at their hotel. Good old days…
Place we won't miss: Sandton city. It is getting claustrophobic in there.
Radical hangover cure: Sushi. It really works.
Journal kept by Richard Anderson