The military two-step

Those of you who will be watching the Lions on Saturday afternoon may wish to observe closely Mr Mike Phillips, the Welsh scrum-half.

Phlllips is in many ways an admirable scrum-half but he has a wee problem. When he receives the ball at the back of a scrum or ruck (or even at a line-out), he feels obliged to adjust both his feet before he delivers the ball in a pass to his outside-half. He receives the ball, one step, two step, then pass. It does not take him long - less than a second - but it is just long enough to allow the Springbok defence to close in on the Lions backs.

Compare the Springbok scrum-half. Once the ball is in his hands, it is immediately despatched.

I am surprised that Phillips has not had it hammered out of him when he was a teenager. But as long as the Lions propose to rely on a scrum-half with such an obvious deficiency, I fear that success in South Africa will be elusive.