Fly-half Dan Biggar kicked four penalties for the tourists before being replaced by Owen Farrell, who slotted the crucial penalty with two minutes remaining. The late penalty sealed a 22-17 victory over world champions South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday in a tight, bruising first Test Match. South Africa pressed into Lions' territory at the death, but a knock-on outside the 22 robbed them of a chance to snatch victory.
Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard kicked four first-half penalties for a 12-3 half-time lead and the only second-half points for the hosts came from a try by scrum-half Faf de Klerk. Andre Pollard slotted penalties after 14 and 18 minutes for South Africa as they translated early territory and possession advantages into points on a cool evening in the southwestern city.
Rival playmaker Biggar was successful with his first penalty to leave the tourists trailing 6-3 midway through a first half every bit as physical as had been predicted. Pollard, who kicked 22 points in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final triumph over England, was in superb form from the tee, banging over two more penalties to push the home team nine points in front.
After Biggar converted the Cowan-Dickie score, a scrambled try by De Klerk gave South Africa a 17-10 advantage on 50 minutes. This was the last push for the Springboks as the Lions came through with a relentless barrage of kicks and finally converted penalties that saw them cruise for the win.
Lions' Mari Itoje won the Man of The Match award and had this to say, " These moments don’t come along often, it’s a privilege to wear this jersey and it means a lot. We want to win this series, we want to come back again next week and do the business. We had to tidy up our discipline in the second half and we had the mental fortitude to see it through.”Lions skipper, Alun Wyn Jones had battled through injury to make his return and was in full joy after the hard fought win, “I can’t sum up the emotions. But we’ve got a good group here and this is special. It was a tale of two halves really, but we extended our kicking game in the second half and brought more of our own tempo. But there’s another two games to go,” he said.