‘Cards did not influence game’
DE BRUIN: THEY DIDN’T MAKE MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE
Coach pointed out that Brumbies won while down to 14 men.
The three cards the Stormers received in Saturday’s Super Rugby battle at Newlands did not have much of an impact on the result, according to Lions coach Swys de Bruin.
The Lions’ narrow 26-23 win ensured they kept a six-point advantage over the chasing Jaguares at the top of the South African conference, and they remained unbeaten after 21 games against fellow SA Super Rugby sides.
Two yellow cards to centre JJ Engelbrecht and flank Jaco Coetzee, and a red card to wing Raymond Rhule in the 50th minute for a late charge on Lions wing Ruan Combrinck, left the Stormers reduced to 14 men for patches of the game, and they were even down to 13 at one stage.
“I don’t think the cards made that much of a difference. The way we played in the second half was excellent,” De Bruin said.
“The cards maybe helped in a way, but I believe the momentum turned to us and the stats will prove that. It happens.”
While the Stormers were in control at 17-7 after the first half, the Lions scored three of their four tries in the second period, with wing Madosh Tambwe snatching a late match-winning effort.
“As we saw in the Bulls and Brumbies game earlier, the Bulls were far ahead but then the Brumbies scored two tries with only 14 men,” De Bruin said.
“If there’s one guy less it makes a difference, but I don’t think it was that much of an influence.
“We cut back a lot more to our forwards and played it more tightly, and we started to maul to gain ascendancy.”
Eventually the Lions scored four tries to two and restricted the Stormers to just two penalties by flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis in a decisive second half.
“Our aim is to score tries and we have scored 68, which is the most in the competition, while we have also recorded the most linebreaks,” De Bruin said.
“But I must say it was tight and towards the end there I thought the Stormers might still sneak it. They showed a lot of fight.”