Eddie Butler laments the two moments of madness that decided the second Test between the Lions and South Africa in his blog forThe Guardian.
"It could hardly have been a better game of rugby. It could scarcely have been worse. A match of the highest intensity and tightest drama was turned by injury and decided by a split-second of recklessness by Ronan O'Gara.
"Contact is not his thing. Why wait until the final second of the final play to put himself about, taking out Fourie du Preez in the air, as the scrum-half leapt for the ball? Just as Phil Vickery must have cut a sad figure in the changing room of Durban, so O'Gara should have been beyond consolation in Pretoria.
"Before the moment of folly – a long, long way before it, right back at the start of the game – there had been an equally horrible moment of madness. The game began as it ended, with an act of craziness. This time it was produced by Schalk Burger, who made contact with the eyes of Luke Fitzgerald. At any time, in any place, under any conditions, that is a straight red card offence.
"His removal for 10 minutes was costly enough, for the Lions scored 10 points, one for each minute, one for each guilty digit on Burger's hands. Even if they had not been fired up for this encounter before Burger's indiscretion at the outset, the Lions were fuelled now."
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