The Lions carried on their fairytale recovery in the Absa Currie Cup competition with a 22-20 victory over the Sharks at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday.
The Sharks came back from 10-5 down to take the lead at 20-15, but then the resurgent Lions came back with a fighting spirit that could see them into the play-offs.
Despite the win, the Lions remain in fifth position on
the log and the Sharks are still the leaders.
Of the three defining moments in the first half, two went the Lions’ way. After just a minute Lions hooker Martin Bezuidenhout had a brainless moment when he tackled Sharks lock Alistair
Hargreaves and then started hitting him repeatedly.
He was yellow-carded after winger Lwazi Mvovo rounded off the movement about 55m on and was lucky to escape with a yellow.
The sitter of a conversion was missed by Patrick Lambie, but the Sharks were 5-0 up inside of two minutes.
The second moment of importance was after a sustained spell of attack by the Sharks over a period of four minutes or so — and when a score looked certain Derick Minnie brought off possibly the best tackle of his career on the corner flag to save the imminent try.
At this stage the score was 5-3 to the Sharks after Elton Jantjies had slotted a penalty.
While the Sharks had slightly more possession, most of the direct rugby was played by the Lions and Jantjies missed an opportunity when he struck the upright from a penalty.
The Sharks returned and looked very dangerous, but once again handling let them down on the Lions tryline — and then Doppies La Grange broke from such an error, broke free and fed Jannie Boshoff.
He ran well, evaded a tackle and passed to Jaco Taute 30m out to go over under the posts. Jantjies converted and the Lions led for the first time, 10-5.
The Sharks struck back — very fortuitously — when they took it wide and Mvovo evaded a tackle. The try was awarded with assistant referee Christie du Preez missing Mvovo’s foot touching the line.
Lambie missed, and the scores were tied at 10-all.
Waylon Murray rounded off some good attacking play by the Lions nine minutes after halftime, but Jantjies again missed the conversion. The home side then drove the Sharks off the ball and turned over another ruck — the third in the half — that
was kicked ahead, too far by just two metres for the chasers.
Lambie missed another penalty, but Odwa Ndungane, who has been busy throughout the match, received a pass on the overlap for an easy
try with 25 minutes remaining. This time Lambie’s kick from near touch was good and the Sharks went back into the lead (17-15).
The lead stretched to 20-15 after 21 minutes of the second half as the Lions bungled a ruck in their own 22 following a Lions handling error on the other side of the field. – Sapa