Lions Tour odds<\/a><\/span><\/span> are in their favour, although the Springboks are formidable opponents \u2013 and won the previous test they hosted in 2009, as well as the Rugby World Cup in 2019.<\/p>\nLet\u2019s take a look at the action so far, as we gear up to the test getting underway on July 24th.<\/p>\n
\nBritish & Irish Lions roar loudest<\/h3>\n
It was a battle of the Lions, as the Sigma Lions took on the British & Irish contingent \u2013 with the latter coming out on top in the opening match of the series. All about the debutants early on, as Louis Rees-Zammit and Hamish Watson both scored, and before half-time, Ali Price, on his first Lions start, added a third try. At halftime, it was 21-7 \u2013 and there was surely no way back for the South African team.<\/p>\n
Josh Adams started the second half brightly \u2013 landing two tries in the opening 13 minutes, both of which were converted by Owen Farrell. And it became the Adams show later on, as the Welsh winger went on to score a further two tries to extend the Lions\u2019 advantage. It was the perfect start \u2013 eight tries scored and all converted as it ended:
\nSigma Lions 14-56 British & Irish Lions<\/p>\n
\nSharks are sunk in Joburg<\/h3>\n
If their first performance wasn\u2019t dominating enough, the Lions took on the Cell C Sharks to produce another red-hot scoreline. Adams continued his great form, landing a hat-trick of tries, while Duhan van der Merwe notched three himself. The lead-up to the match was marred by disruption, when a player and a member of the Lions management team tested positive for coronavirus \u2013 forcing eight players to isolate as Gatland rung the changes.
\nIt appeared the late changes were no problem, as the Lions romped to a 26-0 lead at half time. After the break, James Venter hit back for the Sharks but it eventually came to no avail, with a bit of internal competition between the Lions\u2019 wingers and Welsh internationals. Not to be outdone by Adams, Rees-Zammit added another try and in the game\u2019s final 10 minutes, the floodgates opened.<\/p>\n
Both Adams and van der Merwe landed their third tries of the match, and it ended:<\/p>\n
Cell C Sharks 7-54 British & Irish Lions<\/p>\n
\nShark have no bite<\/h3>\n
Following the news that their match in Pretoria against the Vodacom Bulls will be postponed<\/a><\/span><\/span>, due to a covid outbreak, the Lions faced the Sharks once more last weekend. Back at the Loftus Versfeld, the Lions ran out 71-31 winners.
\nFollowing that huge victory, the Lions face South Africa \u2018A\u2019 on July 14th, and the DHL Stormers three days only. As mentioned, the big test kicks off on July 24th with the Lions facing the Springboks in the first of three tests \u2013 the second taking place on July 31st, and the final, a week later on August 7th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions Tour – so far We may only be two matches in, but the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour so far has not been short of controversy or talking points. Warren Gatland\u2019s squad got things started in some style, winning their warm-up game against Japan before flying out to South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":628848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ulster-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}