Lions Boss Warren Gatland hails his greatest Lions comeback after South Africa win in Cape Town
WARREN GATLAND hailed his greatest victory after the history-making Lions came from behind to triumph in Cape Town.
Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes and Dan Biggar put in titanic performances against world champions South Africa as they recovered from 12-3 down at the break.
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Warren Gatland hailed his Lions comeback win as one of his greatest everFor the first time in 32 years â" all the way back to the 1989 Australia Series â" the Lions won a Test match after trailing at half time.
And when asked if it was his best win, boss Gatland roared: âIt is definitely up there. Any Lions Test victory is special.â
The tourists also had Springbok TV referee Marius Jonker to thank for helping scrub out two illegal South Africa tries in the second half.
Gatland added: âIt has been a challenge. Weâve worked hard.
âHaving been down and fighting back into the game was the most pleasing thing.
âTo beat the world champions first up in their own back yard is really special.
âThey will be hurt from this because they are an incredibly proud nation and world champions.
âBut our changing room is pretty raucous. The victory was about the whole squad.â
Invincible Itoje, 26, helped inspire the huge fightback in which Lions debutant Luke Cowan-Dickie bagged their only try.
Saracens star Itoje said: âI think these are moments that donât come very often in your career, so donât take them for granted.
âItâs a massive privilege to wear this jersey and win as well, it is really special.
âIt was a great comeback but we donât want to get ahead of ourselves.â
And Itojeâs fellow ruck star in the pack Lawes, 32, warned: âThe boys are really excited, but the boys know we have a lot more to give.â
When asked if they could recover, Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber said: âDefinitely. We have to salvage it.
âWe will look at the video and there are definitely things we can sort out.
âWe had three opportunities to score and we got over each time but unfortunately we got brought back twice.â
Covid-hit Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi, who played his first Test since getting the virus this month, added: âThereâs a lot we need to work on.
âWe could have done better. We made mistakes and we can come back stronger.â
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The Lions fought from nine points down to win in Cape Town as Alun Wyn Jones, inset, played his 10th TestSale Sharks and Boks scrum-half De Klerk added: âWe are a proud team, a proud nation.
âWe definitely will make sure we rectify the errors that we made.
âThatâs pretty much it, weâll definitely come back with a bit more fire in our belly.
âA bit more anger, but we need to control the anger to make sure our discipline is in check.
âIf our discipline is good and we can sort out our aerial battle, we should be all good going forward.
âWeâre wounded Springboks, we like having our backs against the wall and we can fight our way out of that.â
British âand Irish Lions receive their test jerseys âahead of South African tour
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
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