Lions Win a Thriller – Featured Durban Blog

In a classic, epic Vodacom Super Rugby derby between the Cell C Sharks and Lions at Emirates Airlines Park, the home side fought back to a 34-29 victory in one of the tightest, most intense matches of the season.

Perfect conditions and a huge crowd (many of them supporting us) greeted the teams and it was an effective start as we earned an early penalty within the first minute’s play and Curwin Bosch continued his outstanding kicking form to convert.

Garth April electrified the attack for the first try, making a fantastic break down the midfield with Coenie Oosthuizen showing amazing pace to keep up with the fullback speedster who offloaded to the bullocking prop to score under the posts, handing Bosch a simple conversion.

The game was being played at a frenetic pace and typical of South African derbies, incredibly physical.

It took until the lucky 13^th minute for the hosts to register their first points through a penalty, but as the game hit the end of the first quarter, Bosch struck a 57m penalty to restore the 10 point lead.

Everything was going our way and after the Lions were penalised for scrumming in, Curwin Bosch’s conversion attempt hit the posts. But we got the ball back and sent it wide for Andre Esterhuizen to score in the corner. Sadly, an early infringement was picked up for a dangerous penalty and the try was disallowed.

The Lions, under huge pressure by a Cell C Sharks team that was smashing them at every collision, were not playing the composed, high-paced running rugby that has been the hallmark of their play in recent years. Instead, the errors were creeping into their play, hurting their momentum.

They were hurting by not being allowed to play their own game and could only score a second penalty, through Jantjies, in the first 33 minutes of the game. That penalty was cancelled out by a classy drop-kick from Bosch.

Unfortunately, there was enough time for a late try for the Lions, Marx driven over just on the stroke of half-time, and with the successful conversion, the lead was reduced to three points, the Cell C Sharks going into the half-time break leading 16-13.

Down to 14 men, our defence was tested early and the Lions exploited their numbers advantage initially at scrum time, then on attack as the scored their second try early in the second half to take the lead for the first time in the match.

The tide continued to turn in the home side’s favour as a drop goal pushed them into a seven point lead but the game came alive moments later as the subs were brought on and Inny Radebe sparked the second try with some good play together with fantastic team work for Kobus van Wyk’s try.  Bosch converted from the touchline to level matters.

With 15 minutes to go, Bosch kicked another penalty as we retook the lead again in a game that was hanging on a cliff edge and exciting as one could hope for. Jantjies levelled the score at 26-all with a Lions penalty moments later but there was more drama to come.

Bosch lined up a 60m penalty and converted beautifully to give us the lead with 10 minutes remaining. But Jantjies levelled again with yet another penalty as the game was going down to the wire.

Out of the blue, the Lions caught out our defence out wide and Kriel scored in the corner with less than a handful of minutes remaining. Jantjies missed from our wide and the result was still anyone’s.

Sadly, there wasn’t enough time but what a game!

There are few fixtures with such thrilling expectation as Vodacom Super Rugby derby matches between the Cell C Sharks and Emirates Lions, which is exactly what we can expect when the two teams meet this Saturday.

The Emirates Lions, as 2016 Vodacom Super Rugby finalists, continue to enjoy success in the competition this year after proving their worth last year.

Besides a 36-24 loss to the Jaguares in Buenos Aires in Round Three, the Lions have the same record as the Cell C Sharks, whose only loss came – also away from home – against the Reds in Brisbane in Round One.

Just two log points separate the great rivals and Saturday’s clash takes on significance given the log positions and jostling for top dog status.

Head coach Robert du Preez admits that although they face a tough challenge against the Lions, particularly in Johannesburg, the team’s focus is on itself, not the opposition. Both teams are coming off important wins – the Lions, a 42-19 defeat of the Kings and our 38-30 victory over the Cheetahs.

“We want to maintain the momentum from last week and improve this week,” he points out. “It’s a challenge that we’re really looking forward to.”

After conceding three tries to the Cheetahs, there was plenty of emphasis on defence at training this weekend and du Preez was not happy with letting in those tries.

“That’s very disappointing and the Lions are just as dangerous. We’re disappointed with those soft tries we’ve given away, so there’s going to be a massive effort required on defence this weekend.”

His thoughts on the Lions are straight-forward and to the point: “They’re a good team, they like to play with ball in hand and they score a lot of tries.”

Containing the dangerous Lions is something captain Tera Mtembu is well-aware that they need to do in order to give his team the best chance of success.

“They were the best South African team last year,” he explains, “but they can’t score tries without ball possession, so if we keep the ball, fix our system errors of last week, it should be a good game.”

Besides being a ‘good game’ he also expects this to be a fiery contest, as most derbies are.

“Playing any South African derby is always very physical, one team always wants to physically dominate the other, to get that physical edge, so it’s going to be a big game.

“But our focus is on ourselves, we know what we need to do. They are beatable and if we stick to what we’ve been doing in training this week, it could be a good result for us.”