Game of two halves for Emirates Lions

It was a game of two halves when supporters in Johannesburg and Cape Town were made to worry before smiling as the Emirates Lions and DHL Stormers put away their Australasian opponents in an exciting round of Vodacom Super Rugby action.

The Emirates Lions played against the Highlanders on Saturday, May 9, at the Emirates Airlines Park, bagging a seventh win in the competition to equal the previous season’s wins.

The local side beat the Highlanders 28-23.

Despite the eventual victory, the Emirates Lions ended the first half trailing 20-3.

The first half saw the Highlanders picking their shots and capitalising on the hosts’ mistakes. They soon took the match away from the Lions, who had a subdued first half.

“I said to the team at half time that we must forget what had happened in the first half and start the second half thinking it is an equal game now,” said the head coach of the Emirates Lions, Johan Ackermann. “We also had to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half to give us a chance and I applaud the team for doing so.”

A stirring second-half performance was enough for the Emirates Lions players to record their seventh victory of the season. This was built on yet another dominant scrum performance, while they also stepped up their defence after the break and played with a lot of speed.

The Emirates Lions’ dominance in the second half was huge. They crossed for three tries in the final 40 minutes, by Jaco Kriel (flank), Courtnall Skosan (wing) and Harold Vorster (centre), while Elton Jantjies (flyhalf) added 10 points with the boot.

It was the Highlanders’ first tour match and also their first defeat to a South African team this season.

“The team showed a lot of character to come back and fight until the end,” said captain Warren Whiteley, at the press conference.

Scorers:

Emirates Lions – Tries: Jaco Kriel, Courtnall Skosan, Harold Vorster. Conversions: Elton Jantjies (2). Penalty conversions: Marnitz Boshoff, Jantjies (2).

Highlanders – Tries: Gareth Evans, Malakai Fekitoa. Conversions: Lima Sopoaga (2). Penalty conversions: Sopoaga. Drop goals: Sopoaga, Ben Smith.

The Cell C Sharks, in their second match of their tour Down Under, also showed a lot of character and played with vigour. But in the end, it wasn’t enough against a fired-up Hurricanes side in Wellington.

The table-toppers from New Zealand beat the Durban-based team 32-24 on Saturday morning, but with less than 10 minutes to go, the result was still in the balance.

On Saturday afternoon, the DHL Stormers also had to fight their way back into contention after a listless first-half performance.

The DHL Stormers turned a 16-9 half-time deficit into a 25-24 victory over the Australian conference leaders, the Brumbies.

The first penalty conversion of the match by Demetri Catrakilis, who kicked 20 points for the DHL Stormers, saw him move to 28 consecutive successful kicks at goal this season.

However, Catrakilis missed the next one, which would have seen him improve the record to 29. As it stands, the DHL Stormers flyhalf now shares the record with former Capetonian pivot, Peter Grant (this is since 2002).

The Vodacom Bulls and Toyota Cheetahs had byes this weekend.

The Cell C Sharks delivered one of their best performances of the season, but still came up short against the table-topping Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday morning, going down 32-24.

The Hurricanes scored 11 points in the final seven minutes to deny the Cell C Sharks a famous victory. In the end, the KwaZulu-Natal team didn’t even get a bonus point for their efforts, something they certainly deserved.

The home team scored four tries to three, with Bismarck du Plessis, Odwa Ndungane and S’bura Sithole dotting down for the Cell C Sharks.

The visitors played with massive passion and really tore into the Hurricanes, but the home team’s poise and calmness under pressure probably pulled this one through for them.

The New Zealand leg of their Australasian tour is now something of the past and if the Cell C Sharks can build on this performance, they could very well taste victory in Australia.

Scorers:

Hurricanes – Tries: Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Jeremy Thrush, Reggie Goodes. Conversions: James Marshall (3). Penalty conversions: Marshall (2).

Cell C Sharks – Tries: Bismarck du Plessis, Odwa Ndungane, S’bura Sithole. Conversions: Frans Steyn (3). Penalty conversions: Steyn.

The DHL Stormers will be the first to admit it wasn’t their best performance, but they still went back to the top of the South African conference with a well-deserved 25-24 victory over the Brumbies at DHL Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon.

Yet again, built on the platform provided by an all-conquering scrum, the DHL Stormers had the visitors on the back-foot for most of the afternoon. But the home-team will bemoan some silly mistakes and a less-than-perfect line-out which allowed the Brumbies to keep the score board ticking over, to such an extent that the men from ACT led 16-3 after 30 minutes.

The DHL Stormers, thanks mainly to a masterful kicking display by Demetri Catrakilis who contributed 20 points with the boot, clawed their way back into the match. Schalk Burger scored a converted try on the hour mark to put the home-team in front for the first time in the match (22-16).

The lead was increased to six points when Catrakilis slotted his first drop-goal of the season. The Brumbies received their second try with 10 minutes to go through David Pocock, but the easy conversion by Christian Lealiifano hit the upright and the DHL Stormers hung on for a hard-fought win.

Scorers:

DHL Stormers – Try: Schalk Burger. Conversion: Demetri Catrakilis. Penalty conversions: Catrakilis (5). Drop-goal: Catrakilis.

Brumbies – Tries: Joe Tomane, David Pocock. Conversion: Christian Lealiifano. Penalty conversions: Lealiifano (3), Jesse Mogg.

Other results – Round 13:

Crusaders 58, Reds 17

Rebels 42, Blues 22

Force 18, Waratahs 11