Mixed emotions for Lions and Cheetahs after Challenge Cup openers

It was an unbeaten start to the European Challenge Cup for the Lions and Cheetahs, but both teams had contrasting emotions, after the Lions were left frustrated with their 31-all home draw with the Dragons, while the Cheetahs were overjoyed with their 21-16 away win over Pau.

For the Lions it was an underwhelming performance against a team they were targeting to get a full house of points from, after they had comfortably beat the same opponents in the United Rugby Championship two weeks earlier.

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In that game the Lions had also produced an average performance, so it was expected that a better showing would see them claim five points from the match, but a poor first half meant they had to battle back from 24-17 down, before taking a 31-24 lead after a fast start to the second half.

The Dragons however hit back to draw the scores level, before a frantic finish saw Dragons flyhalf Sam Davies strike a drop goal attempt wide with just a few minutes left, while Lions replacement flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse watched his 60m penalty attempt on the fulltime hooter just drift wide of the uprights.

Despite the result, the Lions still managed to pick up three points in the match, two for the draw and a bonus point for scoring four tries, so all is not lost as they now look to welcome Stade Francais this coming Friday.

“If you are going to give them eight or nine penalties in the opening 40 minutes you can’t put any pressure on them tactically and you can’t play in the right areas of the field. So if you allow a team into your 22m seven or eight times in the first 40 it is going to be tough,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“We did show some good character to fight back into the match in the second half, but we are disappointed with the result. We will take the three points with it being a new competition, but we feel we should have had five.”

Perfect start

For the Cheetahs, who effectively don’t have any home games as part of the agreement for their participation in this tournament was that they be based in Europe, their tight win over Pau was the perfect start.

It was a low scoring game, with Pau taking a 9-3 lead into halftime thanks to three penalties to one from the boot of Ruan Pienaar.

Two tries with one converted, to Daniel Maartens and Oupa Mohoje, and two penalties, to Pienaar and Siya Masuku, against a converted try to the hosts in the second half, was enough to seal the come from behind win for the Cheetahs.

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