‘Elated’ Lions end season in perfect fashion with U20 title

The Lions U20 team triumphed over Western Province 36-35 (halftime 19-9) in a thrilling U20 Cup final at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon.

It was the perfect end to the season for the Lions who went through the whole competition unbeaten and made up for their only draw in the pool stages against WP.

“I am elated. I think in the first half we were really good from a rugby perspective and in the second half we made a few crucial errors at crucial times,” said Lions U20 co-coach Wessel Roux.

“But the boys stuck with it, I think their character showed and it was a good exhibition of two quality sides that deserved to play in the final.”

In the match it came down to the kicking tee as the Lions converted all three of their tries and slotted five penalties, while WP kicked three of four conversion attempts and landed three penalties, which led to the one point defeat.

The Lions will however be grateful that they were able to hold on in the end after they took a solid 19-9 lead into the halftime break before WP came storming back in the second half to make it an extremely tight finish in the end.

“We obviously had a a really good start to the game which was part of the plan, but our set piece and defence sort of unfolded in the second half,” admitted Lions co-coach Mziwakhe Nkosi.

“But we spoke (in the week) about facing adversity and having good leaders in the team and the boys came through it, we got over that speed bump and now we are here.

“It’s just reward for this group of players and it’s good for this union to have a cup here.”

The Lions junior sides now break for the off season and will pick back up in the new year, with a number of players looking ahead to the Varsity Cup and moving on to the next age group level.