Benjamin dashes in to rouse the Lions

LIONS broke South Leicester hearts with a last-gasp Sam Benjamin try to snatch a memorable victory.

In a pulsating game at Westleigh Park, Lions earned the bonus-point win with a second-half comeback, though South will feel they should have done enough to see the game through to its conclusion.

Lions head coach Andy Key was full of praise for his opponents.

“I think we’ve snatched that victory in the end,” he said.

“We have to give credit to South because they literally threw everything at us.

“We shaded the first ten minutes, but sometimes that can work against you and South slowly clawed themselves back into it and, instead of thinking about going in at half-time in front, we’re going in behind and we had to have a hard look at ourselves.

“We gave away far too many penalties and it becomes a little bit indisciplined, especially at the breakdown, but our team are in a good place at the moment and our character was there again.”

An early penalty for Jon Boden and a superb solo converted try from Ben Marpo, who galloped from deep in his own 22, allowed the Lions to steal a march on their rivals.

South began to control the tempo of the match, with Rickie Aley adding three penalties to reduce the deficit, before a converted Thomas Cheney try put them in front at the break from an excellent drive at the line.

Lions sneaked in front after an excellent kick to touch from Boden led to a catch-and-drive from the lineout, with the outstanding Harry Mahoney touching down and the extra points added.

South again began to take control and a neat play from the lineout enabled former Lion Shaun Murray to offload to Myles Bean, who found the space to go over, with Aley kicking the conversion.

With the game seemingly in their hands, the loss of Chris Gibbs to a yellow card gave the Lions the lifeline they needed and they took full advantage.

First, Kris McFedries touched down for a try after another excellent drive from Mahoney, before Benjamin’s late controversial try. South felt they had held him up out wide, but it was given by the assistant, with Boden adding the conversion.

South head coach Carl Douglas felt his side should have taken the victory.

He said: “We’d done more than enough to win, but, like they did to us in the reverse fixture, you can’t write Leicester Lions off. They’ll keep coming at you and you have to give them credit for that.

“We gave them too many penalties at the start of the game and at the end of the game and they were able to piggy-back on the back of that, get good field position and do what they do best.

“So much of what we practised in the week had come good, but it’s small margins.

“We’ve just got to get better at dealing with those things because they make a big difference in a league like this.”