Brave Lions in thrilling second-half comeback

at Ellis Park LIONS coach Johan Ackermann almost got it horribly wrong by starting with a flavourless, conservative team against the Highlanders.

But Elton Jantjies and Faf de Klerk came off the bench to save the day.

The gamble on Alwyn Hollenbach at inside centre, when Howard Mnisi had combined well in midfield with Harold Vorster against the Bulls last week, landed on the wrong side of the dice.

Flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff did little wrong but he’s just not Jantjies. Jantjies gets the Lions attack moving in rhythmic motion but Boshoff can often be a handbrake.

The game didn’t begin at all as it ended. Aaron Smith was denied a try by the TMO Johan Greeff — of the Bulls forwardpass fame — in the fourth minute because of an obstruction leading up to the score.

Later, Greeff at last located his spectacles and rightly judged Hollenbach’s pass to Harold Vorster in the lead-up to Ruan Combrinck’s try to have gone forward.

There was something about James Small and Andre Joubert on Jonah Lomu about the way Lions winger Ruan Combrinck and fullback Andries Coetzee partnered up to stop Patrick Osborne. On the opposite wing, Super Rugby’s leading try-scorer (with eight tries), Waisake Naholo, was subjected to some jeers from the stands and it took him a while to get his engines started.

If you read the Highlanders starting backline to yourself, you would have wondered how

The Sharks put up a strong performance but lost 32-24 against the log-leading Hurricanes in Wellington yesterday. It was their eighth defeat of the season the majority of the first half went by without a legal try.

The Highlanders’ fire was met with ice by the Lions. Boshoff’s territorially programmed boot, in combination with Hollenbach and Vorster in midfield, meant there were blockages in the flow of the ball to the wings.

But up front, the Highlanders forward pack was so poor that they would have been penalised even against a scrum machine.

Five minutes before the close of the first half, with the score at 6-3 to the Highlanders, the elasticity of the Lions defence wore out.

Gareth Evans scored in the corner for the New Zealanders after sustained pressure and lax defending. Johan Ackermann’s men became sloppy, spilling the ball. Malakai Fekitoa scored a runaway try as a result, giving the Highlanders a 20-3 half-time lead.

Jantjies and De Klerk were brought on in the 46th minute and a minute later Courtnall Skosan scored the Lions’ first try. They weren’t directly involved in the final stage of the build-up but you could tell the players were buoyed by having their best attackers on the park.

Ten minutes later a lineout rumble sent Jaco Kriel bulldozing over the line and Jantjies’ boot brought it to 23-17 with more than a quarter to go. The teams could hardly be separated by a blade of grass when Vorster scored, benefiting from a Jantjies assist.

Two Jantjies penalties kept the Lions’s play-off hopes alive.