Lions’ slip-up could affect bottom line

It’s some time since I last saw a team shooting themselves in the foot the way the Lions did at King’s Park in Durban last weekend. While it’s by no means a given that the 31-24 defeat to the Sharks has cost the Lions a Super Rugby home play-off spot, they will now have to rely on the Bulls and Sharks to do them big favours in order to hang on to their fragile pole position in the South African Conference.

But only they will know how they ended up losing a game which they completely dominated for at least 50 minutes while even their 21-11 half-time lead could have and should have been more in the region of plus-20 points.

It all changed for the Lions when their front row was replaced after props Dylan Smith and Ruan Dreyer had mauled their Sharks counterparts – Springboks Beast Mtawarira and Thomas du Toit – to such an extent that it caused a chain reaction in the rest of the team’s performance.

Mtawarira and Du Toit’s struggles would no doubt have frustrated national coach Rassie Erasmus.

Sharks coach Robert du Preez claimed they simply scrummed too high and that it was fixed at the break, causing their turnaround in the second half.

But it’s more than ironic that they only managed to “fix” their scrum once the two first-choice Lions props were substituted due to injury together with hooker Malcolm “in the middle” Marx, who was immense back in his first Super Rugby action in more than a month.

If they end up losing their bragging rights in hosting a playoff, it could cost the Lions financially, while it could also cost them a possible home semifinal if they are to be overtaken by the Waratahs in second spot.

The Lions will hope the Bulls beat the Jaguares at Loftus Versfeld tomorrow and the Sharks pull one over the Argentinians next weekend.

It could then mean that regardless of the outcome of the Lions’ final home game against the Bulls at Ellis Park next weekend, it would have little significance.

It could, however, be beneficial to SA Rugby if the Lions and the Sharks both qualified for the play-offs.

After all, local teams haven’t exactly experienced the best of campaigns with the also-ran Bulls and Stormers having being confined to the role of spoilers at the business end of the competition.