The Lions managed to score a famous 19-17 victory over the Blue Bulls in an ill-tempered game at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
But the match will be remembered more for the genius of Bulls flyhalf Derick Hougaard, who engineered an amazing comeback from 19-3 down to leave his side two points shy at the end.
In fact, if he was superman he would have been able to complete the feat, as he failed with a 61m penalty by just less than five minutes after the siren had gone.
But the Bulls have themselves to blame as they did all the work in the first half, but found themselves 9-0 down at the break.
The Lions were far from spectacular but scored when it mattered and defended like demons to ensure they are nowhere near a spent force when it comes to this year’s competition.
Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn had a shocker, and missed three easy penalties in the first half and threw away a certain try when he broke through from a loose ball but went the wrong way with winger Marius Delport on his shoulder.
The Bulls may feel hard done by by referee Craig Joubert who ruled truck and trailer as Gary Botha broke away from the back of a line-out drive for a try that all 23 000 fans were certain was scored.
Andre Pretorius slotted the three penalties for the half-time lead, and the Bulls fans could not have been happier when Steyn was substituted early in the second half.
Hougaard’s first touch resulted in a drop goal, but the Bulls were again denied, this time by an inconclusive replay as Derick Kuun went over for a try.
Proving that he is fallible, Hougaard made a mistake, popping a pass for Pretorius to intercept and offload to Jaco van Schalkwyk to finish off what was an 80m try against the run of play.
But he soon returned and ran in a blindside try after another line-out drive to bring the Bulls within distance.
And then with the Bulls desperate to bring themselves within distance, they drove over the line from another line-out penalty where Kuun once again emerged under the pile of bodies.
Hougaard made another difficult conversion to bring them within two, but the catch-up rugby was for once too much for one man to engineer and overcome. — Sapa