Shaw cited for knee challenge as McGeechan bids farewell

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 22:09

LIONS lock Simon Shaw has been cited for alleged dangerous play during yesterday's third Test. England forward Shaw has been summoned to attend a disciplinary hearing this morning.

He must answer a charge of striking with the knee on Springboks scrum-half Fourie du Preez. Shaw was sin-binned for the offence, but New Zealand citing officer Steve Hinds decided the incident warranted closer scrutiny.

Shaw is the second Lions player to be cited on their ten-match South Africa tour, following Scotland forward Nathan Hines who received a one-week ban for a dangerous tackle during the 13-13 draw against the Emerging Springboks in Cape Town 12 days ago. If found guilty, Wasps lock Shaw could miss the opening games of next season's Guinness Premiership campaign.

Meanwhile, head coach Ian McGeechan, who confirmed it was his last game involved with the Lions, praised his players as "outstanding" after yesterday's victory –

the Lions' first Test triumph since Brisbane in 2001.

"They picked themselves up well," said McGeechan after seeing his team regain some pride at Ellis Park after two narrow defeats in the previous Tests. "I mean, the dressing room last week was one I never wanted to be in. So to come this week, play like that, shows they're an outstanding group of players.

"I was worried that they wouldn't play or might go into their shells a bit, but we didn't and we scored some very good tries today. There is disappointment still in that we could have been coming into this one 1-0 or 2-0 up. So it's a satisfaction but a secondary satisfaction because we came here to win the series.

"I think it will be my last Lions involvement. I'd like to thank the players, they've been outstanding to a man."

Captain, Paul O'Connell, hailed his team's ability to dig deep after bouncing back to record an emphatic victory. He said: "It was a very tough week mentally. We just dug deep. Some guys produced some serious form and produced some great scores. I hope people don't misconstrue our lap of honour. We're under no illusions we lost the series. But a lot of people paid a lot of money to come out here, we wanted to thank them."