THE dust had hardly settled on last week’s first Test before a consensus emerged. In Britain and Ireland at least - in fact, perhaps everywhere apart from South Africa - the agreement was that in the end the Lions had been superior by some margin to the Springboks.

Yes, they had been shaky on several fronts in the first half - the early scrums, the lineout, the discipline - and deserved to go in at the break 12-3 down. But long before full-time they had come to dominate the set piece, proved that they had greater stamina, and had a better bench too. Oh, and head coach Warren Gatland had won the psychological battle hands down, above all in the way the tourists had put pressure on the Television Match Official, South African Marius Jonker, by expressing disquiet at his appointment to a position usually occupied by a neutral.

Much of that may well be true, but the fact remains that the Lions only won 22-17 in a game which went down to the last play. For a team that supposedly ran out of puff, the Springboks still had a chance at the death to level the score with a try, to win it with a conversion. And if they were that close last week after being short of match practice, there is surely a fair chance that they will be even closer, when the teams meet again at the Cape Town Stadium with the best-of-three series on the line.

An even closer contest is certainly what the Lions are preparing for. They expect to face a still fiercer physical challenge, and know that they cannot afford to think too much about defending a 1-0 lead, when the point is to extend it.

“We believe we can go out there tomorrow and put in a performance that will win us the Test match and the series,” is how full-back Stuart Hogg put it today. “We’re fully aware of the challenges coming our way: they’re a highly motivated and emotional side that will throw the kitchen sink at us tomorrow. 

“But it’s been a great opportunity to concentrate on ourselves, that we get everything right on both sides of the ball. We enjoy this opportunity and the challenge coming our way. We have to make sure we get every quarter right in the game and give ourselves every opportunity.”

The Scotland captain had a major role in winning the aerial battle next week, and played a part as well in subduing the Springboks’ wingers, Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi, when they were given the chance to run at the Lions defence. It remains to be seen if the home side will persist with a fairly conservative game plan today, or whether they will try to play wider with ball in hand. Either way, Hogg is ready.

“We just have to expect the unexpected. We don’t quite know what’s going to come. You can plan for x,y, z during a game, but sometimes the game goes in the opposite direction. 

 “When the game opens up a bit you will see these guys [Kolbe and Mapimpi]. There will be times we’re uncomfortable in defence, and it’s how we regain control and get in the position to go after them again. 

“If the game does open up we want to be in a position to move these boys around and play in the right areas. We have a game plan that excites me as a back-three player and excites everybody else but we have to get the fundamentals of the game right and get some good ball. If we get that we’re on the right track.”

Last week it took the Lions 40 minutes to get on the right track. Their courage was rewarded early in the second half when Luke Cowan-Dickie scored from a lineout drive after they had opted not to go for goal from a very kickable penalty, but they rode their luck at times too, and Hogg is convinced they will need greater consistency today.

“In the first half there was a bit of ill-discipline: we gave them cheap field position and easy points. That has been addressed, something we have looked at and hopefully we can be better at that tomorrow. Tomorrow we can hopefully execute a game plan for a full 80 minutes, because that’s what we need.” 

Twenty-four years ago Gregor Townsend, now one of Gatland’s assistants, was part of the Lions team that beat the Boks in Durban to win the series. Hogg knows his place in history will be assured if he follows in the footsteps of his national coach and is part of a victorious side, but he also knows that last week’s heroics could well count for nothing unless he and his team-mates back them up. 

“I think there was maybe half an hour or 45 minutes after the game last week when we were sitting in the changing room that I could relax and take everything in, and it was really quite a special moment,” he added. “But it quickly turns to being involved in the next job and making sure we’re prepped in the best way possible.”