Savaged by the Beast, Vickery expects to lose Test place

British and Irish Lions prop Phil Vickery does not expect to retain his place for the second Test against South Africa after suffering a mauling in Saturday’s opening defeat in Durban.

“I am realistic enough to know my place must be at risk for the second Test in Pretoria,” the 33-year-old tighthead said in his Daily Express column on Monday.

“I have been through some experiences in my rugby life but it is fair to say what happened to me in the Lions scrum during our first Test was among the worst.”

Vickery’s chief tormentor came in the form of Springbok prop Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira, who repeatedly forced the Englishman out of the scrum, leading to a series of penalties that proved costly in the Lions’ 26-21 defeat.

“It is profoundly disappointing for me that my problems had such an adverse effect on everyone else,” Vickery wrote.

“I didn’t think it was any one thing. I had a couple of bad scrums and then the referee made his decisions, which were against me and never the Beast.”

“He [the ref] was very adamant but I never really worked out what he wanted,” Vickery, who was substituted for Welshman Adam Jones four minutes into the second half, added.

Lions scrum coach Graham Rowntree had no complaints about the penalty count and speaking after Saturday’s Test, he confirmed there could be possible changes in all three rows of the pack.

“It’s a collective thing, I have to look at what went wrong.

But by his own admittance, Phil [Vickery] struggled, but the rest of the pack have got to help him.”—Reuters