Lions close in on race for top spot
Hard-fought victory over Stormers puts SA team six points clear of Jaguares
THE Lions have one hand on the South African Conference title‚ which will secure a home playoff place‚ after beating the Stormers 26-23 at Newlands on Saturday.
Victory moved the Lions to 40 points on the standings and put them six points clear of the Jaguares in the race for top spot.
While there was an element of fortune in Saturday’s win at Newlands thanks to two yellow cards and a red card against the home team‚ the Lions turned the screws when they had to.
They showed the ruthlessness of a team at the top of the standings rather than at the bottom.
“We are relieved and pleased because Newlands is a tough place to win no matter what the circumstances are‚” Lions coach Swys de Bruin said.
“Our discipline was very good. At half time I calmed the guys down and told them‚ if we win the discipline battle‚ we will win the game.
“The pressure was so high. They came at us with everything and it was a mammoth effort from them to fight so gallantly with 13 and 14 men at some stages.”
The Lions might have expressed sympathy after the match but there was no soft side during the contest as captain Franco Mostert expertly made his team take full advantage of the Stormers’ misfortune.
After spending most of the day attempting to play expansive rugby in slippery conditions‚ the Lions recognised a change was needed when the Stormers were numbers short.
Two mauling tries for replacement hooker Corne Fourie put the visitors in front and demonstrated that their match awareness and execution was a key weapon.
“When they had those cards we knew that we could go to the basics like mauling‚ which is what we did‚” Mostert said.
“We decided to keep the ball up front and then the space would come out wide later.
“The scrums didn’t go our way on the day but our mauling worked well.”
De Bruin was happy with four more tries‚ which took the Lions to 68 tries – the most in the competition.
“It doesn’t matter how we score them‚ it’s a team thing. We are always trying to find the opposition’s weak point‚” De Bruin said.
Meanwhile, Stormers coach Robbie Fleck cut a lonely figure after his media briefing, sitting alone in the team dressing room‚ head in hands‚ clearly distraught after a season that has been dogged by bad luck as well as bad mistakes.
Wing Raymond Rhule was red-carded for making contact with opposite number Ruan Combrinck in mid-air while flank Jaco Coetzee and centre JJ Engelbrecht earned yellow cards for dangerous tackles.
“If you look at it [Rhule’s incident] from a safety point of view‚ and you connect with the head of another player‚ it’s a red card,” Fleck said. “But I know there wasn’t any intent and ultimately it wasn’t great for the game.
“We spoke before the match that if we gave away too many penalties we would allow the Lions into the game, and some of the penalties against us were 50/50 calls.
“Generally, we could have been better with our discipline‚ but the character shown by our team was unbelievable.”