A stunning hat-trick of tries by Western Province right wing Egon Seconds was not enough to spur his team to a win over the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.
The two teams shared the spoils after ending a thrilling match locked at 26-26, but it could have been so different.
Both teams had their chances, but in the end a calmly taken last-minute penalty by Lions flyhalf Nel Fourie salvaged two points for his team.
The Lions led 13-10 at halftime.
The Lions came out firing from the first whistle, dominating the territory and possession through their tight forwards.
By keeping the ball close to the rucks and using the driving maul to impressive effect, the home team had the visitors on the back foot in the opening quarter of an hour, but failed to convert that dominance into points.
Their best chance to get on the scoreboard early was squandered despite excellent work from Kleinjan Tromp and Baksteen Nell in the build-up.
Western Province though defended superbly, with replacement scrumhalf Stefan Basson — he replaced the injured Bolla Conradie in the 10th minute — pulling off a massive tackle on Tromp, stopping the charging lock a metre short of the tryline.
Province too had their chances in the first 20 minutes, mostly in breakaway situations, but the teams remained deadlocked going into the second half of the opening stanza.
The dangerous Province backline had seen little of the ball until this point, but purred into action in the 22nd minute to score the first try off the match through Seconds. Flyhalf Chris Rossouw added the extras.
Just as it seemed that WP was about to take command of the half, centre Robbie Fleck was sin-binned (25th minute) for a dangerous tackle and the Lions scored 13 unanswered points with that one-man advantage.
When Fleck returned the Lions had built a 13-7 lead, after centre Doppies la Grange had scored a try and Fourie kicked the conversion and added two penalties.
However, the visitors had the last laugh of the opening 40 minutes when the Lions had prop Nell yellow carded for shoving Chris Rossouw in the face and the No 10 made no mistake with the resultant penalty to go into the break three points adrift.
Tromp, who was magnificent in the tight and loose all evening, intercepted a pass intended for Gaffie du Toit a minute after the restart and showed an impressive turn of speed to go over under the poles. Fourie’s conversion increased the gap to ten points.
The game started to open up nicely and that played beautifully into the visitors hands and they stormed back with two neat, albeit unconverted, tries. Both were scored by Seconds as the WP backs showed just why they are rated as the best unit in the country at the moment.
With a little more than 20 minutes to play, the teams were level at 20-20 and everything to play for.
The defences, which had been a feature throughout the match, held firm during the next 15 minutes, while Rossouw slotted two penalties to Nel’s one to give Province a narrow 26-23 lead with five minutes left on the clock.
However, young Fourie showed nerves of steel to secure the draw and the two points that could be extremely important in the final analysis.
Point-scorers: LIONS 26 (13): Tries: Doppies la Grange, Kleinjan Tromp. Conversions: Nel Fourie (2). Penalties: Fourie (4).
WESTERN PROVINCE 26 (10): Tries: Egon Seconds (3). Conversions: Chris Rossouw (1). Penalties: Rossouw (3).