Matfield is glad to see back of Euan Murray
Springboks lineout king Victor Matfield says the world champions were delighted they didn't have to face Northampton Saints star Euan Murray.
The 28-year-old missed the opening Test defeat in Durban because of an ankle injury, and Matfield believes the South African scrum would have found it a lot harder against the Scotland tighthead.
And he is delighted Murray isn't around to come in and fix the woefully under-powered Lions scrum for the first Test.
It looked like the Lions coaching team had decided to go with Phil Vickery for the first Test anyway after Murray started in the final warm-up game against the Southern Kings, but it proved the wrong pick as the former England captain was destroyed by the man known as 'The Beast.'
Tendai Mtawarira won the man-of-the-match award as the pressure he put on Vickery saw South Africa shove the Lions back and win plenty of penalties at scrum time in the 26-21 defeat for the tourists.
Murray had done a similar job on The Beast in Scotland's narrow 14-10 defeat to South Africa in November, winning the man of the match award as he sent Mtawarira packing.
And Matfield said: "There was one guy in the front five we were hoping would be playing on Tuesday.
"He (Murray) was someone who had given us big problems during our tour to .
"He had asked questions of our scrum and we did not come up with the answers. Euan Murray caused us a lot of trouble that afternoon and we were very surprised, and happy, when he was chosen to face Southern Kings because we knew that meant he would not be involved in the first Test and that we would get the edge up front."
If ever there was an example of why a prop should be picked on his set-piece first and not on what he can add in the loose then the first Test exposed it.
Lions head coach Ian McGeechan wanted Vickery's extra dynamism in the loose, but his lack of scrummaging power was badly exposed and the creaking scrum cost Lions victory.
Adam Jones came on to shore up the scrum, but Lions scrum coach Graham Rowntree must be wishing he could call upon Murray for the second Test in Pretoria.
"I have no doubt that the Lions would have turned to Murray for the second Test, but the other piece of good news for us is that he has gone home injured," said Matfield, who was on the verge of teaming up with Murray at Saints ahead of last season before returning to the Blue Bulls.
"The Lions will work on their scrum this week and we will not catch them out as we did in Durban but we will also get better and stronger up front.
"I was amazed when I read in the build-up to the game that our scrum had been written off and that the Lions would dominate us there."
Murray will now be hoping he doesn't need surgery on the ankle ligament injury as gets himself ready for next season.
But ahead of the second Test, the Lions have to find a way of containing Mtawarira, who was man-of-the-match just over a year after making his debut for the Boks against Wales.
Matfield, though, says he is not surprised at all by the loosehead's meteoric rise.
“If the Lions were surprised at the strength and technique of the Beast, they should not have been because he simply did to their tight-head what he had done to many others in this year’s Super 14,” he said.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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