The first phase of the Lions tour to South Africa is over. The second phase includes this week's two games, against the Sharks on Wednesday and Western Province on Saturday, which will indicate the shape of the starting XV against the Springboks a week later.

Now that every member of the tour party (with the exception of Riki Flutey) has been given a start, the management gloves must come off.

They have honoured their promise and they have no more time to play with. They have to make selection decisions taking into account the relative merits of the three teams the Lions have faced so far, the last of whom were the Cheetahs at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

If a dropped-goal attempt from nearly 50 metres by Louis Strydom had not flown narrowly wide, the team who finished bottom of the Super 14 would have claimed victory.

There is little point querying the decisions of Wayne Barnes, the English referee. The Lions must look deep within and acknowledge that their admirable desire to be fair to all led to the poorly balanced XV who started in Bloemfontein.

Neither back row nor midfield boasted the proper proportions. They were taught a lesson by the home back row - in which Heinrich Brüssow should have received the man-of-the-match award given to Stephen Ferris, of Ulster - and only a steady performance by the half backs and the forwards at the set-pieces kept the Lions afloat.

The Lions are in the happy position of having virtually a full complement from which to choose for this crucial week. Flutey has recovered from a twisted knee and will be available against the Sharks here and only Martyn Williams is unavailable.

That is a big “only” because Williams, the veteran open-side flanker, is crucial to the game of continuity that the Lions seek, but his shoulder should be mended in time for Saturday's match in Cape Town against Western Province.

“I thought he and Riki would be going home together, but the care they have had has been marvellous,” James Robson, the Lions doctor, said yesterday of a medical team “light years” ahead of the one that accompanied the 1997 squad here, when Robson was also the doctor.

The Lions remain unbeaten but have been reminded of the facts of life. If, by scoring 20 points in the first 22 minutes, they thought that they could carry on where they left off from the 74-10 mauling of the Golden Lions three days earlier, they were mistaken.

“The Super 14 games in which we did really well were those in which we were in the opponents' faces the whole time, with a really aggressive defence,” Naka Drotske, the former South Africa and London Irish hooker, who coaches the Cheetahs, said. His team did not make the Lions work hard for their two tries, the first when Ferris collected a loose ball and waltzed in unopposed, the second when Keith Earls gathered a little chip by James Hook and showed his side-step and swerve.

Nor did the Cheetahs kick the second-half penalties that might have made all the difference. But the work of Brüssow and his colleagues forced a stream of turnovers similar to those in the first game of the tour, against the Royal XV. “I thought the breakdown was badly refereed,” Ferris said, while acknowledging that, when he was in the sin-bin, the Lions conceded 14 points. “It was completely different for us than for the Cheetahs. My opposite number [Brüssow] was very good on the ground, he seemed to get away with murder.” But then, what open-side flanker of any stature does not?

The Lions themselves, who admitted being puzzled by some of Barnes's decision, were happy to have the matches outside the internationals handled by officials on the IRB's referees ranking list, so they will be officiated by four South African and three British and Irish officials.

“Turning ball over killed us when we were in good positions,” Paul O'Connell, the Lions captain, said, most notably when they had worked a patient path up to the Cheetahs' 22, only for Shane Williams to aim a pass at Luke Fitzgerald that was picked off by Corne Uys, who ran 75 metres to the Lions' tryline.

Given that Barnes awarded the Lions a penalty when the Cheetahs were poised in dropped-goal territory in stoppage time, they had limited cause for complaint.

Scorers: Cheetahs: Tries: Demas (26min), Du Preez (34), C Uys (72). Conversions: Potgieter 2, Strydom. Penalty goal: Potgieter (42). Lions: Tries: Ferris (11), Earls (17). Conversions: Hook 2. Penalty goals: Hook 4 (7, 22, 39, 50).

Scoring sequence (Cheetahs first): 0-3, 0-10, 0-17, 0-20, 7-20, 14-20, 14-23 (half-time), 17-23, 17-26, 24-26.

Cheetahs: H Daniller; J W Jonker, C Uys, M Bosman, D Demas; J-L Potgieter (rep: L Strydom, 60), M de Bruyn (rep: G Odendaal, 45); W du Preez, A Strauss (rep: R Strauss, 50), J Calldo (rep: W P Nel, 47), N Breedt (rep: F Viljoen, 47), D de Villiers, H Brüssow, F Uys, H Scholtz (rep: K Floors, 64).

Lions: L Byrne (Ospreys); L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), K Earls (Munster), L Fitzgerald (Leinster; rep: G D'Arcy, Leinster, 75), S Williams (Ospreys); J Hook (Ospreys), H Ellis (Leicester); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), R Ford (Edinburgh; rep: M Rees, Scarlets, 63), E Murray (Northampton; rep: A Jones, Ospreys, 63), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster; sin-bin, 23-34), J Worsley (London Wasps; rep: N Hines, Perpignan, 68), A Powell (Cardiff Blues).

Referee: W Barnes (England).

Attendance: 23,710.