Smith: Lions hurt by missing Saints star
Northampton Saints legend Tom Smith says the British & Irish Lions are 'badly' missing the scrummaging power of Euan Murray.
Murray has flown home because of an ankle injury picked up in the final warm-up game ahead of last week's first Test defeat to South Africa.
It seems Phil Vickery was always going to play ahead of the Saints tighthead in the first Test, and it proved a disastrous selection decision as the Lions scrum was smashed by Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira to usher a 26-21 defeat.
Smith believes Vickery must take the blame for the scrum's woes, and the Lions have reacted by dropping the former England skipper and Lee Mears from the 22 for tomorrow's second Test in Pretoria.
Now retired Saints star Smith said: "They missed Euan quite badly. I think they had made the decision to start with Vickery fairly early on in the tour and they paid the price.
"It doesn't matter how good you are in the loose, if you are giving away penalties and doing that badly in the scrum you are going to endure a bad day. If you can get your own ball away then you might take that, but the Lions weren't able to achieve that either."
Smith, who played in all three Tests as the Lions won in South Africa in 1997, can't understand why Ian McGeechan and his coaches went for Vickery over Murray
"Victor Matfield said Euan was the player South Africa feared," said Smith.
"And if they looked at the Scotland game they will have seen Euan dominant against the Beast, not just a little bit, but completely dominant. I can't understand why they weren't going to pick him and I never will understand it.
"I was surprised that South Africa dominated that much.
"In international rugby you don't see that happen very often."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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