The Lions edged the Cheetahs 37-36 in a thrilling Currie Cup encounter played in front of a small but appreciative crowd at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.
The Cheetahs led 15-13 at half-time.
Nine tries were scored in all — five by the visitors — as both teams threw caution to the wind in their bid to qualify for the semifinals.
The result guarantees the Lions (29 points) a semifinal spot where, depending on next week’s matches, they will face the Blue Bulls (32 points) either at home or at Loftus Versfeld, but chances are the Bulls will host the match. The Bulls play the Leopards in Rustenburg, while the Lions face a far sterner test against Western Province at Newlands.
The Cheetahs (16 points) have made the play-offs too, but will have to travel to Cape Town to take on Western Province (22 points) in a repeat of last year’s semifinal. They needed a win on Saturday to stay in the hunt for a home match.
Early on, it seemed they could do no wrong. The Lions started the match like 15 headless chickens and spent much of the opening 40 minutes running around aimlessly, yet somehow they trailed by just two points at the interval. A plethora of dropped passes, bad options, poor support play and a host of dreadful line-outs meant the home team played most of their rugby off the back-foot in a fast-paced first half.
A series of well-timed tackles, though, prevented the Cheetahs from getting full value for their magnificent effort in an exciting first period.
The game see-sawed between the sublime and the ridiculous, which had as much to do with the Cheetahs’ fine play as it did with the inept display dished up by the home side early on. The only shining beacon for the Lions was outside centre Jaque Fourie, who was in inspired form and helped lift his team out of their first-half malaise.
The Cheetahs were gifted the ball on several occasions and their wily backs made the hosts pay. A brace of tries by fullback Bevan Fortuin in the opening 14 minutes gave his team a 12-0 lead.
The visitors continued to plunder ball at the breakdown, but a snap drop-goal by Andre Pretorius finally got his team on to the board in the 17th minute.
The next score came from the visitors as they continued to turn on the charm for the meagre Ellis Park crowd.
The Lions finished the half strongly — Pretorius first kicked a penalty before Wayne Julies’s effort narrowed the gap to two points.
The second half was in stark contrast to the first as both teams exploded into life, running in three tries each as the small crowd gorged themselves on a spectacular 40 minutes.
Pretorius and De Waal converted all the tries, but it was the Lions who seemed to have engineered an amazing turn-around as they went from 15-13 down at the break to 37-22 ahead with 16 minutes to play.
The Cheetahs, however, did not give up and two late tries by CJ van der Linde and Barry Goodes meant the Lions had to weather a nervous final five minutes, which they did with aplomb. — Sapa