South Africa’s Lions overturned an 11-point deficit to beat Australia’s Queensland Reds 26-20 in their Super 14 clash in Brisbane on Saturday.
The Lions trailed 17-6 late in the first half but scored two unanswered tries in the second to chalk up their fourth straight win of the season and move to second place in the standings.
”We’ve got a bit of a sequence going now,” Lions captain Ernst Joubert said in a televised interview.
”The guys showed great character again, they played brilliantly, I’m so proud of them.”
Queensland, who dropped to the second from bottom after their fourth straight defeat, dominated the first 30 minutes with teenage flyhalf Quade Cooper and replacement scrumhalf Will Genia both scoring tries but lost their way in the second half.
Lions fullback Earl Rose kicked four penalties to keep his side in touch then converted Jaque Fourie’s 55th minute try to put the visitors in front.
The Reds regained the lead after an hour when fullback Clinton Schifcofske booted his second penalty and were still ahead by a point with just six minutes to go when a series of mistakes allowed the Lions to launch another attack and Joubert charged through three defenders to score next to the posts.
”There’s no positives from that game — we should have won it,” Queensland coach Eddie Jones said.
”I think we must like losing because we had them on toast … we just played dumb in the second half and there’s no excuse for that.”
Both teams travel to New Zealand next weekend with the Lions playing the competition leaders Auckland at Eden Park and Queensland tackling Otago in Dunedin. – Reuters