British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland sounded off positive notes about the Test series going ahead on a night when they came closest to having a game called off following a Covid-19 positive test in their camp.
The Lions beat the Sharks 54-7 at Ellis Park in a game that was nearly cancelled after a member of Gatland's management team tested positive hours before kick-off.
The tourists had to wait until two hours before the 20:00 kick-off to hear back from the medical team whether there were sufficient Covid-negative players to field on Wednesday evening.
Gatland said he was confident the Test series against the Springboks, who counted 12 fresh positive results this week, and had their second Test against Georgia cancelled, would proceed as scheduled.
"I honestly believe we will have a Test series," said Gatland.
"We spoke beforehand, and our medics said the likelihood in South Africa we're going to get a case or two, and it's just how we deal with it.
"The players have been incredibly vigilant. South Africa is probably in a worse situation than us, but we've got some time over the next few weeks to have a good Test series and make sure that we're safe and secure in our bubbles.
"We're not sure where we picked these cases up; whether it was through hotel staff, some people passing by at the matches or whatever, I'm not 100% sure.
"As far as we're concerned, we're preparing and really looking forward to an exciting Test series."
The Lions were clear of the virus until Wednesday, which is the reason Gatland was stumped as to how someone might have caught it within their seemingly impenetrable bio-bubble.
Still, it didn't distract his players, who went onto Ellis Park's turf and put on a show, scoring eight tries to one against the Sharks, featuring two trebles by SA-born wing Duhan van der Merwe and fullback Josh Adams.
Gatland was asked if the there was a threat to their upcoming games after the Bulls also had an outbreak, forcing the postponement of their Saturday match at Loftus.
"No, not at all," said Gatland.
"We've been incredibly vigilant in what we've been doing as a group in this bubble for the last four weeks, so we're not sure where it's come from.
"The challenging thing was when we first came into the hotel, and there was a number of hotel staff that had tested positive and had to be removed.
"Whether it's come from that [I don't know] but I know that all our tests had been negative up until today (Wednesday).
"We'll just address it as we go. We knew there were going to be certain challenges, but we're hopeful that we can get things back on track and this Test series can go ahead."