Vickery expects the chop

Veteran British and Irish Lions tighthead prop Phil Vickery, expects to lose his Test place after the mauling at the hands of Springbok loosehead Beast Mtawarira, in the first Test in Durban at the weekend.

Many felt the scrums, and in particular the hatchet job done by Mtawarira, put the Boks on the road to winning the first of the three Tests which makes a Lions win in Pretoria a must.

And although referee Bryce Lawrence got the blame for Vickery’s annihilation from some quarters in the Lions camp, it was really just brute, raw power that did the trick.

“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,” the 33-year old prop wrote in his Daily Express column on Monday, in which he says he is “realistic enough to know my place must be at risk for the second Test in Pretoria”.

Vickery was penalised three times in the first half for scrumming in, with two successful penalties by Ruan Pienaar putting South Africa in command.

“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 was substituted by Wales tighthead Adam Jones five minutes into the second half.—Sapa