The “dark arts’ of rugby’s front row have long-suppposed to be a mystery for all bar the hulking props and hookers who face off in the “trenches” but it didn’t take an expert to figure out something significant was happening in the first half of South Africa’s defeat of the British and Irish Lions last weekend.

England World Cup winner and former captain Phil “Raging Bull” Vickery was taken apart by Springbok prop Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira, a novice 10 years his junior and not previously noted for his scrummaging prowess.  

This is just not supposed to happen. Who or what was to blame? Vickery? Skulduggery? New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence? The rest of the Lions pack?  

Below are a few explanations, and comments, from the British media:

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“The referee allowed The Beast to squat low and fire Vickery through the roof of the scrum, something that is totally illegal.”
Stephen Jones of the Sunday Times tries to make more friends in the Southern Hemisphere.

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“Vickery was not helped by the fact that yet another elite referee, Bryce Lawrence, of New Zealand, did not have a clue about what goes on in the front row and officiated accordingly. When Vickery was shot moon-wards, it was the clearest example of illegally lifting a player one could wish for, yet Lawrence saw only that Vickery stood up.”

Brian Moore , the 1989 and 1993 British Lion and England hooker, agrees. 

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“He’s a good man is Vickery and it’s not time to bag him unduly now. He knows himself that he was well and truly …”

Matt Cleary of the Daily Telegraph discreetly lets us finish his sentence for him. Was the word he was looking for foxed?

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“Eight scrums, three penalties, nine points. Those were the stark first-half stats reeled off by the scrum coach, Graham Rowntree, the morning after the terrible day before. It wasn’t all Vickery’s fault, the scrum being an area of collective responsibility, and no, there was nothing illegal about the Beast’s work, despite what Ian McGeechan and Paul O’Connell had intimated in the immediate aftermath of the defeat.”

Eddie Butler, a number eight for Wales and the 1983 British Lions, sees no offence.

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“In the early scrums, Mtawarira went after his opponent, popping Vickery out of the engagement and leaving him peering around at nothing in particular like a human periscope. Vickery’s response was to hit on the angle and drive in towards Bismarck du Plessis, the aggressive Springbok hooker – an act of purest self-preservation that was immediately spotted and heavily penalised by the referee, Bryce Lawrence.”

Chris Hewett - The Independent.

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“But in the end the tactic was simple; to target Vickery, who was seen as the weakest scrummager of the original three Lions tightheads by the South African camp … The plan worked perfectly for the first half of the game. The Beast and huge hooker Bismarck du Plessis isolated and exploited the veteran England international …”

Gareth Griffiths - South Wales Echo

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Finally, Vickery himself:  

“I had a couple of bad scrums and then the referee made his decisions, which were against me and never The Beast … He (the ref) was very adamant but I never really worked out what he wanted.”

PHOTO: England captain Phil Vickery wipes his face during their Six Nations rugby match against Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland in this March 8, 2008 David Moir/Reuters