Lions shut up Bulls in derby

● Guile and brutality formed a wonderful symmetry in what the Lions at times turned into a demolition derby.

The team in red exposed their noisy neighbours, with a performance that underlined their maturity and status in the South African conference, while laying bare the length of the journey still facing the Bulls if they want to attain such heights.

The Lions came here determined to put their neighbours in their place.

Swys de Bruin had his coaching wits put to the test against John Mitchell, and for the Lions mentor this would have been a personal triumph.

Having been beaten just once in their last 22 Super Rugby matches against South African opposition, the Lions now know their way around a derby.

They came here with the intention of suffocating the Bulls’ free running new ways and in that they succeeded with aplomb.

Eyebrows were raised when Bok lock Franco Mostert was named in the No 7 jersey for this match but he came through with his reputation in the stratosphere. He was a tower of strength in the lineout and in the tight loose, and the contributions of Malcolm Marx, Warren Whiteley, and frankly the rest of the Lions pack was massive.

Three first-half tries were a result of purposefully bashing the Bulls’ door down. As much as the Bulls’ locks played starring roles here last week, it was the Lions’ props who featured prominently in the early scoring. On separate occasions Ruan Dreyer and Jacques van Rooyen emerged from an expired rolling maul, but only after the Lions had bulldozed over the tryline.

At the back Elton Jantjies had the ball on a string, and Rohan Janse van Rensburg just kept on trucking.

The Bulls couldn’t plug all the gaps and simply could not handle the sheer furnace of the Lions’ forward unit. Two yellow cards in the second half served as their death knell.

The loss of captain Burger Odendaal, who withdrew on the eve of the match, didn’t help their cause.

The Lions’ lofty place in the South African conference was confirmed. The Bulls should seek comfort in the fact that they lost to a side that has been on a few journeys.