Lions protect territory with win against Stormers
IN the week that a new Springbok coach was named and a new era dawned, a new king of the South African jungle, the Lions, overcame the Stormers in a tough contest at Ellis Park.
Recent clashes between these two sides had provided more fireworks than the Hindu Diwali festival, but the lights came late last night.
The visiting Stormers had the talent to let fly but lacked intent. The Lions, on the other side, had intent but lacked composure. The hosts, as per the rules of the jungle, had the bulk share of the possession but somewhat tarried with the ball early on. They lost tighthead Julian Redelinghuys to injury within 10 minutes of the start, but their scrum didn’t suffer visible damage.
The Ellis Park grass, however, suffered. You could sense the union’s blushes when frantic groundsmen went onto the field to garden some patches of the field ravaged by the scrum. The turf looked like a botched gastric bypass operation.
The game needed ingenuity after half-an-hour of rigid play and it got it from Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies in the 36th minute when he put a dipping chip with the outside of his boot over the defence for Rohan Janse van Rensburg. It was the kind of audacious chip his mentor Carlos Spencer would have tried to pick a tough lock.
From there, the Lions hands did the work and winger Ruan Combrinck finished in the corner. It was the only try of a half dripping with the kind of South African rugby Allister Coetzee must inspire the country to improve. The Stormers hadn’t pitched up by half time but were still in it at half time thanks to four Jean-Luc du Plessis penalties. It was clear they wanted to win the match without the ball — which is like choosing immobility as a form of transport.
Stormers No 15 Cheslin Kolbe went from mirroring Gio Aplon to kicking as much as Johan Roets. There were prayers that the game would open up in the second half.
Damian de Allende, who drew the biggest cheer, came on for Johnny Kotze with 30 minutes left. But Faf de Klerk’s inclusion for Ross Cronje had the biggest impact of the match. The wee fella pounced near the tryline in the 58th minute to push the Lions ahead by eight.
The Stormers woke from their slumber and crafted neat offloads towards the Lions tryline before substitute flanker Siya Kolisi side-stepped Jantjies on his way to the line. It took them 63 minutes to score their only try, but that score, like the one Kolisi scored here late in their 22-19 win last year, gave the Stormers a sniff of victory.
But that was false hope as the general of the proceedings, Jantjies, had the last say with a penalty and dropped goal in the last 10 minutes.