Tonight:
4°c
The Lions have barely launched their South African tour but have already reached a tipping point, with tonight's clash against the Golden Lions set to define the rest of the campaign.
Having performed so badly while defeating the Royal XV 37-25 on Saturday in their opening fixture, the Lions now face a Super 14 outfit who will expose any defensive weaknesses and a loss this early in the tour could be catastrophic.
South African rugby does not rate this Lions squad, believes their World Cup winners are going to take the series 3-0 and expects the Super 14 teams who face the tourists to emerge victorious, even without their Springbok players.
At least our Lions can take comfort from the state of the opposition tonight, who are described by locals as the "basket case" of South African rugby and being in a state of chaos.
The franchise called in former Springbok World Cup-winning coach Jake White and his "Winning Ways" company to conduct an audit of the operation on and off the pitch and the first recommendation - which they followed - was to sack head coach Eugene Eloff, following another lacklustre Super 14 tournament.
This initiated player unrest and while a threatened strike was averted last week, simmering discontent remains both within the squad and among the fans who must long for the days when they used to follow Transvaal under Francois Pienaar, the 1995 World Cup-winning captain.
Besides playing problems, the Golden Lions made themselves unpopular with local fans by agreeing a lucrative deal which saw Ellis Park - where President Nelson Mandela handed over the 1995 World Cup to Pienaar - change its famous name to Coca-Cola Park.
The old Transvaal team recorded seven wins over the touring Lions and were feared throughout the sport. Now, the only reason to fear taking on the current version of the team is created by the area around the stadium which is incredibly deprived. It is a fact of life in Johannesburg that despite this being a major African city, it's heart is failing with inner city crime and desperately bad housing forcing businesses to choose areas like Sandton where the tour party is based.
Here street security is very visible while around Ellis Park that only becomes evident for big sporting events and fans leave the area quickly after rugby matches, mindful that the dangerous Hillbrow region of the city is close by.
It is against the background that Ian McGeechan's Lions will attempt to convince South African rugby that Saturday's match was an aberration, evidence of a how altitude can affect athletes who are not totally acclimatised to the rarefied air.
Defence coach Shaun Edwards has been working the players hard and will demand total commitment from a team featuring around nine potential Test players, headed by Brian O'Driscoll.
Tonight will be the first time he has captained the Lions since the opening 2005 Test in New Zealand which saw him suffer a badly dislocated shoulder follow that infamous spear tackle.
O'Driscoll has been paired at centre with the hard running Jamie Roberts, one of the few players who enhanced his reputation on Saturday. If the big Welshman can off-load in the tackle then his Irish mid-field partner can cause havoc in opposition ranks.
Tommy Bowe is also playing again as Leigh Halfpenny only joined the tour party yesterday after completing the rehab work on an injured thigh which kept him in Cardiff for two weeks.
Wing Bowe scored a try against the Royal XV and will be expected to forge an effective back three with Harlequins wing Ugo Monye and Rob Kearney, the Ireland full-back, who should push Lee Byrne hard for the test No15 jersey.
The Welsh half-back combination of Stephen Jones and Mike Phillips are favourites to appear in the First Test and need to control the game intelligently against a local side that enjoys counter attacking from loose kicks. Phillips is tall and strongly built - in total contrast to the scrum-halves who do well in South African teams - and his ability to get the ball away from the break down swiftly will be severely tested tonight.
However, the tourists' back division cannot operate unless the forwards subdue the opposition and England prop Phil Vickery will be expected to be the dominant voice up front.
The Lions started poorly on Saturday, failed to dominate at the break down and did not make best use of the driving maul which is now allowed by recent rule changes.
They need to scrummage the opposition into the ground, tire out their legs and compete strongly through Alun-Wyn Jones on the home line out throws to prove that this tour party contains the firepower to cause the Springboks problems in the Test series.
It's time for the Lions to roar.
