James Hook and Euan Murray have been ruled out of the Lions team for Saturday's first Test against South Africa in Durban.

Both players were in contention to face the Springboks but were taken off early in the first half with injuries during a bruising 20-8 win over the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth yesterday

Hook, the Ospreys fly half, received a blow to the head in a tackle from Wylie Human, while Euan Murray, the Northampton prop, has a sprained right ankle. The pair had their injuries assessed on Wednesday and Lions medical staff ruled them out.

The Lions left the new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium convinced that, in the words of Ronan O'Gara, "they were more interested in kicking lumps out of us than scoring or keeping the score down. There have been more cheap shots in that game than in all the others put together”.

The Ireland fly half initially refused to shake hands with his opposite number, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, who was one of two Southern Kings players to receive a yellow card, in his case for a dangerous tackle. Even when O'Gara did so, he alleged that the former Springboks No10 was still throwing verbal punches. “He was still lippy and said that we'd get smashed in the Test, so I just said, ‘We'll see,'” O'Gara said.

Gordon D'Arcy, the Lions centre, also ignored De Wet Barry, the former Springbok centre who played for Harlequins, when the game ended. “Gordon was upset at Barry's behaviour,” O'Gara said, “But we stuck it out. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't anywhere near our top performance.”

The Lions management refused to comment on suggestions that the Southern Kings may have targeted their opponents, but there is no doubt they were upset by an overtly physical display that cost them the services of two players within the first 13 minutes.

The declared aim of the Southern Kings, who are seeking a franchise for the expanded Super 14 in 2011, was to “climb into the Lions” and they lived up to their word in a fractious, ill-tempered game.

“The Southern Kings obviously wanted to make a game of it,” Ian McGeechan, the Lions head coach, said without a hint of euphemism. “It was pretty full-on, we had to control that and keep our composure to win the game. The penalty try [that ensured the Lions take six wins out of six into the internationals] proved that we kept our heads, that we kept doing damage where, in rugby terms, it hurts most, on the scoreboard.”

Alan Solomons, the Kings coach who coached at Ulster and Northampton, was frank in his view. “When touring sides used to come to Eastern Province, we used to climb into them and it was an incredible effort from my boys,” he said.

The Lions may choose to differ. “You have to hope the referee [Nigel Owens, from Wales] and his assistants will referee what they see,” McGeechan said but if he has complaints, they will be made in private.