Roaring Lions turn tables on their old foes

at Ellis Park SO many times the Lions have lost at the death, so many times they have been the butt of the Jukskei jokes but, at least for one night, Armand van der Merwe’s last-minute try flipped the script of this contest.

Last night’s clash was one of the closest, most tense of recent years between the teams. Nothing epitomises a South African derby more than the festival of lineout drives and crash balls.

But what was clear was that the Lions have caught up to the rest of the conference. Whereas in most years the Bulls would have come to Johannesburg expecting to have their way, like Vikings pillaging the local supplies, the Lions refused to be dictated to.

The Lions struggled to defend the Bulls’ drive at the scrums — who hasn’t? — but they did enough to stop threatening stampedes.

Most importantly, they stayed within touching distance on the scoreboard and gave themselves enough of a chance to make a late charge.

At least for the first quarter of the game, the Lions probably had more ball possession than they enjoyed in the same period on their overseas tour. But the point was to use it wisely.

Hurriedly, the hosts went 6-0 ahead through flyhalf Elton Jantjies’ boot, but the string of phases that brought about the penalties was the major contributing factor in the match.

When the rain abated, the home team strung wonderful error-free passes, full of interchanges between Jantjies and his outside backs Lionel Mapoe and Ruan Combrinck.

But the showers descended to pull the handbrake on the Lions adventure and threatened to turn this into an insipid contest.

Like the Duckworth/Lewis system to the Proteas’ Cricket World Cup, the moisture turned the momentum around in favour of the opposition and the Bulls cashed in.

Frans Ludeke’s men were like amphibious vehicles as they turned into motorboats to overturn the deficit to a 9-6 half time lead through Jacques-Louis Potgieter’s goal-kicks. It might have been a bigger lead had he not missed a couple.

Both sides started the season in worse form than the Sharks but came into this game through gritty turnarounds and much soul-searching.

However, for the Lions to prosper, they needed to quickly forget their three wins on tour and focus on the job at hand. The same applied to the Bulls on their outstanding 31-19 win over the Crusaders last week.

Captain Pierre Spies was fired up for this one, so too was the other forgotten Springbok loose-forward Deon Stegmann, as he made heavy tackles and crucial turnovers. Stegmann was just a nuisance everywhere on the park and that is exactly what the orders would have been from his coach.

The Bulls got the first real attacking break less than 10 minutes after the restart, when Burger Odendaal toed through for Bjorn Basson to chase.

The move led to a try on the opposite wing by Francois Hougaard but the referee ruled that the ball had gone forward off centre JJ Engelbrecht before reaching the right winger.

You would have had more success starting a braai flame during a tsunami than getting your running game going here last night. Faf de Klerk intercepted from outside his own 22m-line, almost providing the hot finish the game was begging for but Bulls substitute scrumhalf Piet van Zyl caught his opposite number as he was getting away.

De Klerk had a part to say in the thrilling finish anyway because his quick tap set up Van der Merwe’s winning try.