CAPE TOWN – The British & Irish Lions stunned the World Champion Springboks in 1997 in winning the first two Tests and taking the series. It was a defeat very few anticipated and the pain was more like slow torture because South Africans had to wait 12 very long years for the chance of redemption.
It would take a very special Springbok team to beat a star-studded British & Irish Lions squad in 2009. In fact, it would take one of the finest international teams to ever play the game, if not one of the greatest in the professional era, to conquer the Lions.
The legendary All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who lost just 17 of his 148 Tests, rated the 2009 Springboks as the greatest team he lined up against. McCaw, a winner of back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015, suffered the full force of the 2009 Springbok brilliance. The Boks beat the All Blacks twice in South Africa and then made it three successive wins in triumphing in Hamilton, New Zealand. No other team in the professional era had beaten the All Blacks three times in succession in one season. That is the measure of John Smit’s Springboks, who peaked in the 2009 Tri Nations, which is now the Rugby Championship.
The Tri Nations title was the crowning glory of the Springboks’ season and to claim a three-nil win against the All Blacks and also take the scalp of a potent squad of British & Irish Lions players is an unprecedented achievement for captain Smit, coach Peter de Villiers and some of the finest players to ever wear the Springbok jersey in the professional age.
Springbok rugby’s first Test centurion, Percy Montgomery, had won a World Cup in 2007, had beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand, had won the Tri Nations and, at the height of his playing career, had held nearly ever Springbok kicking and points-scoring record. But Montgomery’s biggest career disappointment was in losing the 1997 Test series to the British & Irish Lions.
Montgomery, in the guise of the skills and kicking coach, would in 2009 finally experience a series win against the famed United Kingdom and Ireland visitors. It allowed him to walk away from international rugby satisfied that there wasn’t much more left to achieve.
Montgomery had just retired from international rugby in 2008, so the core of the 2009 Springboks had been his teammates since his international return in 2004.
"The 2009 side were undoubtedly at the peak of their powers," says Montgomery. ‘We were outstanding in winning the 2007 World Cup in France, but were inconsistent in 2008. We had a change of coach from Jake (White) to Peter (de Villiers) in 2008 but come 2009 and Peter and the senior players had gelled and were all on the same page.
"The players went from being outstanding in 2007 to exceptional in 2009. There was so much quality and depth in each position, confidence and a winning habit. John Smit’s leadership can never be overstated," says Montgomery. "John has to go down as one of the greats of world rugby and certainly a Springbok great when it comes to his leadership and his achievements as a player."
Smit, who had converted from hooker to prop for the 2009 series, was supreme in the first Test win in Durban and his leadership was colossal in how he fronted the dramatic yellow carding of Schalk Burger in the opening minute of the second Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
The Lions took full advantage of the additional player in the opening 10 minutes and deservedly led for 74 minutes. The strength of the Lions in player pedigree and performance would have destroyed good teams in Pretoria. The Springboks of 2009, though, were better than good they were great.
"The greatest teams win when for most of the game they look beaten. The Pretoria Test had everything and I don’t think I had a fingernail left at the end of it," says Montgomery. "And it came down to a last minute 50 metre penalty from Morné Steyn. It was one of the great goal kicks in Bok history because of the significance of the kick winning us the series."
Montgomery was an integral part of the 1997 and 1998 Springboks, who won 17 Tests in succession. The 102-Test veteran had debuted against the Lions in 1997, but felt it was unfair to compare the 1997/98 players to the generation of 2007 to 2009 because the game had changed so much. What would define a debate was that the 2009 World Champion Springboks did the All Blacks and British & Irish Lions double in one year.
"Both cycles had their peaks, but 2009 was definitely in a class of its own to back up a series win against the British & Irish Lions with three straight wins against the All Blacks," says Montgomery.
McCaw played in some of the greatest All Blacks teams in the last decade but Montgomery echoes McCaw’s sentiments when talking about the 2009 Springboks' standing in history.
Names like Frans Steyn, JP Pietersen, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Morné Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Fourie du Preez, Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, (John) Smit, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger, Juan Smith and Danie Rossouw would all have made a World XV between 2007 and 2009.
It says everything about the strength of the Lions that they lost by just five and three points in the opening two Tests.
"You only get one crack at the British & Irish Lions in your international career and I was fortunate to get one as a player and one as part of the coaching team.
"It is a unique experience but, heck, was made that much more enjoyable because of the series win in 2009," says Montgomery.
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