Vickery hails hero Hook

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Second-half substitute Hook struck four minutes from time, booting a 50-metre kick in blustery conditions to see the Lions thwart Western Province 26-23. The Lions had earlier scored three tries through Tommy Bowe, Ugo Monye and Martyn Williams, but Western Province fought back from 18-9 down to set up a thrilling finish.

"Credit to James," said Vickery. "As soon as you saw the contact he made, you knew he had the distance."

He added: "It was a great honour to captain the Lions and I am just pleased the guys pulled it through. Western Province fought to the very end. They never gave up, as you would expect.

"The only thing that bothered me was winning the game. It was about making sure of that. We had to go out and win that game. We didn't get it all our own way, and it says a huge amount.

"A week today is the reason why we are here - a Test match - and I just hope we go out and do ourselves justice."

The Lions' opening Springboks showdown in Durban is just seven days away, and they will head to Port Elizabeth for Tuesday's appointment with the Southern Kings boasting five wins from five.

Head coach Ian McGeechan added: "It was a good game of rugby and I am pleased to come out of it winning. We always knew this would be probably be the strongest team we'd faced so far.

"Maybe we tried to play a bit too much rugby at times. It was blustery with a wet ball, which meant there was always going to be a high error-count.

"You can't underestimate the conditions, or the opposition, who were really intent on making it difficult. Our lineout and scrum is going very well and our breakdown work was very pleasing."