This was as desperately disappointing as the thumping midweek win was elevating, and the Lions could easily have lost.

There was real hope in the eyes of Louis Strydom of the Cheetahs as he dropped for goal to win the match at the end, and it was only in the last few yards of the flight of the ball that he turned away and cursed his rotten luck.

Shall we get the mitigating circumstances out of the way first? The Cheetahs were wonderfully committed and harsh, they had a hard-nosed footballing nous and they defended magnificently. And the Lions were hamstrung by their own wish that anyone who had not started on tour as yet could start yesterday. So combinations were unfamiliar, and some struggled horribly.

The policy meant that the Lions paired the two young Irishmen, Luke Fitzgerald and Keith Earls in the centre and they were out of their depth as a unit and as individuals. It meant that that there was no-one to set up Lee Byrne in attack, that James Hook had to soldier on heroically at fly-half with nothing happening outside him and meant that even with quick ball, the Lions had no bite.

The second half was painful. The Lions launched only two attacks of any note in the whole period, they were outplayed at the breakdown. Far too often, Paul O’Connell stationed himself at fly-half, tried to make ground from a standing start without having anything like the gas for the job. He took responsibility, he just got in the way.

The longer the ball stayed in play through the phases, the more shaky the Lions became. They were frequently turned over after carrying the ball through five or six phases. It would be absolutely preposterous to blame this on Joe Worsley, who is not a naturally openside. Worsley and his back row were splendidly competitive, and the breakdown shambles was a communal responsibility.

Disappointingly, other likely Lions failed to assert themselves. Euan Murray had a shot at playing in the match against South Africa as a scrummaging prop but he could make no impression whatsoever on Wian Du Preez up front. As usual, the Lions scrum drove forward powerfully on Andrew Sheridan’s side so the scrum in general was a chaotic Catherine Wheel, and it scuppered the Lions hopes of launching Andrew Powell off the back.

Bizarrely, the Lions proved through the first quarter, with Hook running the show, with the forwards hammering hard around the edges. They scored two tries in the first 18 minutes and just for a time, it seemed that an enormous victory was on the cards. But they conceded two tries when Stephen Ferris was in the sin-bin and nothing resembling momentum ever surfaced again.

The Lions scored first when Worsley and Fitzgerald hammered Hannie Daniller in a double tackle and when the ball was jolted loose, Ferris picked up the loose ball and showed a decent turn of foot to run on and score.

Not long afterwards, Hook took the ball up to the Cheetahs defensive line, chipped over the top and Earls, who had begun shakily, reached the ball first and held off the cover to score. Those of us level with the Hook kick, did form the distinct impression that the chasers were in front when Hook struck the ball. Still with some decent kicks from Hook, it was 20-0 and all was well in Bloemfontein.

There was not even a frisson when Ferris was dispatched. However, the Cheetahs started driving from the scrum to expose the depleted Lions back row. The sharp Danwell Demas scored down the left after convincing approach work by the Cheetahs and after the Lions were turned over at the breakdown twice in close succession, the squat figure of Du Preez managed to batter his way through the cover the score and 20-14 was a lot less comfortable for the Lions.

Disappointingly, there were no further tries by the Lions in the second half. Hook did give them some respite with a penalty to make it 23-14 and there was then a penalty from each side to take it to 26-17.

But by this stage, even the better Lions attacks were proving an anxiety. After Powell and Harry Ellis had conjured a decent move, the ball reached Shane Williams in the midfield and to the right. Williams had been starved of decent ball for so long, and he tried to force the ball when he probably should have taken it into contact. He scrapped a pass away, but it was intercepted by Corne Uys, and the capable Cheetahs centre ran around 80 metres to the posts at the other end. The conversion brought it back to 26-24.

At least the Lions had the better of the closing stages and at last they managed to launch Byrne through the first lines of the Cheetahs defence. But by this time, the Lions were lacking shape and lacking leadership, to go with their lack of a breakdown.

Clearly, in the thin air, the Cheetahs fancied their chances of a winning drop even from inside their own half, so they were aghast when Strydom missed his drop and then shortly afterwards when referee Barnes awarded the Lions a penalty just as the Cheetahs were winning a ruck and lining up a host of hopeful droppers.

Last Wednesday there was elation in Lions ranks on the final whistle. Yesterday, there was dejection and resignation.