Roger Alton

Can the Lions prise open the strong Boks?

• From magazine issue: 24 July 2021

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  Roger Alton

  Can the Lions prise open the strong Boks?

  

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Meanwhile Faf de Klerk, the apotheosis of the wily scrum-half and a man who could pick a fight on the Moon, will be the pivot on which the Springboks’ power game depends. But if the Lions can hold the Boks for 60 minutes, Gatland could throw on his bench and run the pants off South Africa. That’s the plan anyway…

What a shot from Liam Livingstone, the Lancashire all-rounder who has seemingly become an overnight sensation, despite being nearly 28 and on the radar for some time as a cricketer with bags of talent but struggling to make the most of it. Then bang: that 42-ball century (England’s fastest ever in T20) and, possibly even more remarkable, a straight hit for six that went out of one Headingley — the cricket stadium — and into another: Leeds Rhinos’ rugby ground. With any luck he will soon emulate Albert Trott who played Test cricket for Australia and England and remains the only man to have hit the ball over the Lord’s pavilion, in July 1899.

Livingstone credits Paul Collingwood with correcting his fault of allowing his left hip to collapse when playing shots for suddenly making him one of the world’s best one-day batsmen. Maybe that’s why I never made it past the house 2nd XI.

When is a car accident perfectly acceptable? When it’s a ‘racing incident’: motor racing’s quaint term for an acceptable prang. The
F1 authorities couldn’t decide whether or not the Verstappen-Hamilton coming together at Silverstone was a racing incident, so handed Hamilton a punishment (a ten-second time penalty) that didn’t rule him out of winning the British Grand Prix, which he duly did.

Red Bull cried foul and Lewis waved his Union flag for all his worth. I’m not sure who was right but it was great theatre. Verstappen was thinking: ‘I’m turning in so you better back out.’ Hamilton’s view was: ‘If we touch it’ll be a lot worse for you.’ When someone gets hurt, or worse, there will be outrage. Until then it’s just a racing incident, a line we could all try next time we have a bump on the A303.