The Lions continued to upset the apple cart as they carved out a memorable 22-21 victory over the Sharks in their Currie Cup encounter at Ellis Park on Saturday evening.
The Lions had looked rather lacklustre and predictable in the dying moments of the match until substitute Grant Esterhuizen scored the winning try in the 76th minute to elevate the Lions to an unlikely victory.
For the better part of this encounter the Sharks had looked like the stronger side and seemed to deserve victory more as they were able to counter each and every Lions attack throughout the 80 minutes.
But the Lions proved yet again that they were not completely out of the Currie Cup semifinal equation as they showed the guts and determination to steal victory literally from the jaws of defeat.
It was a tight encounter indeed, one that restored much credibility to the competition but also one that would have had Springbok coach Jake White gloating at the explosive and elegant play of Sharks fullback JP Pietersen.
The Sharks’ unrelenting pack of forwards almost did the unthinkable by annihilating a Lions team that were still glowing from their win over the Blue Bulls last Saturday at Loftus.
So evenly matched was the game that the result could only be determined by the hungrier of the two teams as they ended deadlocked on three tries a piece.
The Sharks seemed like a side on fire when they started the second half after trailing 12-11 at the half-time break. They had come to Ellis Park with a plan, to gain top spot on the log, and they were quicker off the starting blocks as Brent Russell slotted a penalty in the second minute.
However, it was not long before Jaco Pretorius scored a try against the run of play.
In the 24th minute Warren Britz rose from among a horde of bodies to be rewarded the try after the Sharks had made good use of a scrum 5m from the Lions’ try line.
Cobus Grobler added another five points for the Lions in the 33rd minute to give the Lions the lead, with Russell slotting over a penalty in the 36th minute to haul the Sharks within a point of the Lions at the half-time interval.
In the first half, both sides tried their ultimate to out-muscle each other. It was an evenly contested chapter in the opening 40 minutes as the Lions forwards threw all bodies against their more agile and tactically astute Sharks counterparts.
For a change nobody really got the ascendancy over in the line-outs, scrums, rucks or mauls, but the difference in who would gain the psychological edge lay in the tenacious Sharks’ fighting spirit as they easily quashed any of the Lions’ meaningful attacks.
At face value the Lions may have seemed to dictate proceedings, but their inability to convert territorial and possessional advantage to points cost them dearly before the half-time whistle.
Even Jaco Pretorius’s try came from a Sharks error, which had ”opportunistic” written all over it as Pretorius was the proud recipient of a Wylie Human stab after Sharks flanker Jacques Botes had hesitated with ball in hand.
Another factor that contributed heavily to the Lions not sitting in the pound seat by half-time was the lack of a reliable kicker as they struggled to find touch and take adventurous penalties from distance. — Sapa