The Lions had to dig deep before emerging narrow 22-18 victors over the Falcons in a hard-fought Vodacom Cup match played at the Pam Brink Stadium in Springs on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors led 9-6 at the break, but trailed by nine points with a little less than 30 minutes remaining.
The Lions were expected to dominate proceedings from the outset, but a determined team effort from the home team kept the visitors on a tight leash throughout the 80 minutes.
The hero for the visitors was flyhalf Quinton van Tonder who slotted five penalties and converted the team’s only try for a personal haul of 17 points that proved the difference between the sides.
The Falcons outscored the Lions by two tries to one with fullback Ruan Coetzee also performed admirably, scoring a try, a conversion and kicking two penalties.
But his 13 points proved insufficient as his counterpart, Van Tonder, was unflappable all afternoon, punishing the Falcons for indiscretions inside their own half.
The Falcons edged ahead when Coetzee scored shortly after the restart and stretched the lead to nine points (18-9) when a great break from his own 10m line by left wing Leon Lubbe ended with right wing Godfrey Mangweni crossing in the corner.
However, prop Pietman van Niekerk barged over, soon after reducing the deficit to two points with a conversion.
Van Tonder then stepped up to make the game safe with two late penalties to give his team a lucky win.
The victory keeps intact the defending champions’ unbeaten record following the crushing win over the Leopards at RAU last weekend.
Van Niekerk had a fine game for the Lions and was rewarded with his try, while the home team had the fine effort from Godfrey Mangweni and Coetzee’s five-pointers to keep them in the hunt right until the final whistle. — Sapa