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Durban - Scrum coach Graham Rowntree had no complaints about the penalty count against the British and Irish Lions pack in Saturday's first Test defeat by South Africa as they failed comprehensively to tame 'The Beast'.
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Lions tighthead Phil Vickery had a day to forget as he was repeatedly forced up and out of things by Tendai Mtawarira - 'The Beast' - leading to a series of penalties that the Springboks turned into points en route to their 26-21 success.
"In those eight scrums in the first half, three times we were penalised and that gave them nine points. The referee rewarded the dominant scrum, as we'd asked him to, and I've got no real issue with any of the decisions," Rowntree told journalists on Sunday.
"What we failed to do was keep a lid on The Beast at engagement time and he was able to get under us. They were going forward, their movement was upwards and legitimate I feel.
"The Beast was pretty impressive. There was one scrum after nine minutes when we got lifted off the floor and if I was their scrum coach I would have retired and gone to Panama."
For Vickery it was a painful re-run of the 2003 World Cup final. On that occasion he was regularly penalised by South African referee Andre Watson despite dominating his side of the England scrum. He was eventually replaced in extra-time by Jason Leonard, who joined the fray with instructions to just hold his ground.
On Saturday, however, the Lions were forced to take Vickery off four minutes into the second half, sending on Welshman Adam Jones in his place. When Mathew Rees went on for hooker Lee Mears soon after to join starting prop Gethin Jenkins the all-Wales front row settled things down, albeit helped by South Africa's baffling decision to take off captain John Smit and Mtawarira after 65 minutes.
Rowntree took heart from the scrum's improvement after the substitutions and said there would definitely be changes for next week's second Test in Pretoria, possibly in all three rows of the pack.
"It's a collective thing," said the former England and Lions loosehead. "I have to look at what went wrong. By his own admittance Phil (Vickery) struggled but the rest of the pack have got to help him."
Vickery looks certain to miss out and with Scot Euan Murray already departed with an ankle injury, newly arrived replacement John Hayes should vie with Jones for the starting berth.
The Lions might turn to Simon Shaw to add some bulk to the second row in place of Welshman Alun Wyn Jones, with Shaw also to beef up the defence against the maul, which was poor on Saturday as the Springboks trundled their pack 30 metres to score their second try.
"When the lads look at that again they'll be a bit embarrassed. You just can't let that happen in test rugby," Rowntree said.
"I think the players are hurting but we must be positive, there is enough to build on and we've got the personnel."
The Lions now move to Cape Town for Tuesday's game against the Emerging Springboks where the coaching staff face a difficult balancing act.
They will be keen to rest most of their starting team for the second Test but also need to look at potential new combinations, particularly in the pack.
"It's another opportunity... it will probably help us iron out some selection headaches," Rowntree said.
'The Beast bossed us'
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Originally Posted by Burgs
