South Africa 17 Lions 22: Gatland’s stars edge first Test as Biggar’s boot and Cowan-Dickie’s try sees Lions over line

DAN BIGGAR led simply the greatest comeback that no one ever saw.

After a simmering war of words, the history-making Lions roared to an epic victory at ghostly Cape Town Stadium.

What started as a nightmare  at 12-3 down ended as a fairytale as the world champion Springboks had TWO second-half tries scrubbed out by South African TV ref Marius Jonker.

And  Biggar booted 14 points in his first Test after  a start  of shanked kicks and erratic play.

The Wales star shook off those nerves to incredibly steer this side to the impossible dream as they went 1-0 up against the odds.

And Luke Cowan-Dickie’s  stick-it-up-yer-jumper try was one that Jonker can watch time  and time again and have no  problems with.

When the spotlight fell on Jonker, the man you had never heard of until this week, the home official kept his nerve.

Jonker replaced  Kiwi Brendon Pickerill,  who withdrew due to Covid, and   correctly ruled out Willie Le Roux’s second-half try for offside in a  heart-in-your-mouth moment.

When  called on again by ref Nic Berry for  a potential knock-on by Pieter-Steph du Toit in the build-up to Faf de Klerk’s try,  he was again on the money by awarding it.

And he later rescued the Lions  for a second time by flagging up Cheslin Kolbe’s knock-on in the build-up to a duff Damian de Allende score.

 It was all going so wrong for   the Lions who  were never going to come back from Handre Pollard’s four first-half penalties, were they?

They were being savaged. They could not cope.

‘THEY WERE BEING SAVAGED AND COULDN’T COPE’

And guys like Eben Etzebeth and Du Toit — two blokes seemingly bigger than Table Mountain — were even testing  Maro Itoje.

The Lions were chasing their tails from the off and, when Tom Curry was late with a hit on his Sale Sharks team-mate De Klerk,  Pollard started the damage with a penalty . . . then another.

So when the chance came to hit back, miracle man Alun Wyn Jones — back less than a month after  dislocating his shoulder — tossed the ball to Biggar to score his first Test points with his boot and get them into the game at 6-3 down.

The immense Itoje saved his team deep in their own 22 with a breakdown steal from Siya Kolisi but the Lions could not get out of their own half.

Pollard stretched the lead back to six as he went three from three off the tee as the tourists continued to crumble with sluggish and sloppy play.

There were threats all over the pitch and tighthead Trevor Nyakane got over the ball to pinch another penalty for Pollard to kick.

And while Pollard was on the money with his kicking game, Lions fly-half Biggar was shanking them  out of hand and   scuffed a penalty at 12-3 down on 35 minutes.

Robbie Henshaw then saw his name up in lights when he broke towards the try line, only to spill the  ball forward in the middle of the Boks’ 22 under pressure from Le Roux.

It was like watching reruns of England’s 2019 World Cup final agony as the Springboks strangled and  suffocated the Lions.

‘LIONS DON’T DIE WONDERING’

But this is the Lions. Lions  do not die wondering.

Warren Gatland’s front row  detonated  as try scorer Cowan-Dickie was the man in the middle of a rampaging red wave as the driving maul was fired up.

The Lions then thanked TMO Jonker for his intervention to scrub out a Le Roux try minutes before he gave De Klerk’s as the game slipped away again at 17-10 down.

They were done, weren’t they?  No chance.

Ice-cool Biggar held his nerve to convert a penalty to reduce the deficit to four. . .

Then one . . . then ahead by two. What on earth was going on?

The Welshman looked a different man in the second half as he booted the Lions ahead for the first time on 63 minutes at 19-17 up. Only for sub Hamish Watson to hand Pollard an easy shot at goal when he tipped Le Roux in the tackle — but Pollard missed.

Then with Biggar off the pitch after a blow to the head, sub  fly-half Owen Farrell put the game to bed with his own three-pointer.

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Celebrations at the end were muted. The Lions  knew that they had ridden their luck and  the  Covid-hit Boks will come back stronger and angrier.

But the two fans who stood  outside before the game, one  Lion and one Springbok,  will not care — well, one won’t.

Neither will the supporters at home who were  denied the chance to witness history being made in Cape Town as the tourists search for their first series win here since the iconic side of 1997.