Warren Gatland predicts tough second Lions Test against ‘desperate’ South Africa

Winning their first Test in South Africa means the British and Irish Lions are halfway to completing their objective for the summer, but Warren Gatland has warned his players of a potential backlash.

That’s after the Lions head coach said the Springboks will be “incredibly desperate” to level the series at Cape Town Stadium this Saturday when the Lions could wrap up the tour early.

South Africa led 12-3 at the interval during the maiden Test encounter but ultimately succumbed 22-17 following a second-half comeback from their guests.

As tough as that fixture was, Gatland is expecting his challenge of replicating the result will be even more difficult against a South Africa side gaining in motivation.

“[Winning the first Test] relieves a bit of pressure but the expectation is still the same and the pressure reverts a little bit to South Africa because they are going to be incredibly desperate,” the Lions chief said.

“We think there is another level in us, [I’m] not sure where that momentum is going to come from [for South Africa]. I think our defence has been excellent on this tour and has continued to improve.

“You’ve got to embrace that expectation. I said to the players beforehand, I get incredibly excited about these big games, finals and Test series, because I love seeing the desire of the top players; how much they want to win these big matches. There is expectation and we should embrace that expectation and expect ourselves to improve from the first Test. Hopefully, we will have won the series by next week.”

The Lions have gone on to win the series on each of the four occasions where they’ve won the first Test in South Africa, with this being their 14th tour of the country since they first visited in 1891.

The visitors triumphed on Saturday after the hosts were denied two tries by the television match official, while many argued Lions substitute Hamish Watson should have been sin-binned for a tip tackle.

South Africa director Rassie Erasmus has since become subject of allegations that he’s been using a Twitter ‘burner account’ to publicly air his views and express concerns over refereeing.

He'll hope to see fitness and cohesion levels improve this week considering the first Test was only South Africa's second game since the 2019 Rugby World Cup final.

The Lions bench played a critical role in turning the tide against the Springboks in the first Test, and Gatland went on to tease potential changes for the upcoming rematch.

“Do we need to introduce a few people just to change things up a bit? I said that the selection was really tough. A lot of players put their hands up. We’ve got a meeting as coaches. I don’t know if we’ll select the team; we’ll probably just talk about that. Tomorrow we’ve got some recovery stuff and then I’ll name the team on Tuesday,” he concluded.

The Kiwi served as forwards coach under Sir Ian McGeechan when the Lions toured South Africa in 2009, losing their first two games before taking a consolatory win in the third encounter.

Now in the top job, Gatland has an opportunity to return the favour and clinch a Lions series with a game to spare, as well as maintain an unbeaten record on his third tour as head coach.

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