British and Irish Lions

The Sharks international players will now be able to concentrate fully on impressing new Springbok coach Pieter de Villiers after they lost the chance to make it two Super 14 finals in a row in Sydney.

Last season's Super 14 runners-up ran into a brick-wall like NSW Waratahs defence as they lost 28-13 and saw their hopes dashed of meeting the Crusaders in the final.

One of the 2009 British & Irish Lions' leading non-Test opponents, the Sharks were outscored by four tries to one in what skipper Johan Muller described as "a disappointing outcome".

The Springboks launch their 2008 international campaign with two Prince William Cup clashed with Wales in June. They then meet Italy before playing in the Tri-Nations tournament.

New Boks coach de Villiers will now have an extra week to work with his full squad ahead of the World Champions' shoot-out with Warren Gatland's Welsh Grand Slammers in a two match series that could be a pre-cursor to some of next year's match ups on the Lions tour.

Shane Williams v Bryan Habana, Ryan Jones v Ryan Kankowski and Victor Matfield v Alun-Wyn Jones are three fascinating individual duels in prospect that could run into the November series of matches at the Millennium Stadium and then into 2009 when the Lions tour.

The British & Irish Lions will dust themselves down after losing their unbeaten record to the Brumbies and be back at work in a positive frame of mind from Wednesday, according to 2009 Test full back Rob Kearney.

With Tuesday's trip to Canberra next on the agenda for The British & Irish Lions, we take a look back at their last clash with the Brumbies, a match that went right down to the wire.