Lions pleased to regain late momentum with another URC victory

The Lions were happy to get back to winning ways with a bonus point 37-29 win over Benetton in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match at Ellis Park on Saturday.

After an impressive four match winning run was brought to a screeching halt by losses against the Sharks and Connacht, the Lions finally found their groove against their Italian challengers.

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the hosts who trailed 22-8 after the halftime hooter sounded, but a late try in extra time and another straight after the restart brought them level before they were able to kick on to a good win.

“Just before halftime and that first 10 minutes after halftime probably laid the foundation for our comeback and kept the momentum coming our way,” said Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“If we keep it simple and effective we look more than decent, so it’s just little things we have to work on to make us more consistent.”

In all it was a scrappy match between the two sides, who were both already out of the running for the URC playoffs, leading to both team’s throwing caution to the wind, which led to a number of errors in the game.

“I think the conditions were almost nearly perfect for a game. So I think the reason for that was both teams were willing to have a crack and probably force an offload or play too much,” explained Van Rooyen.

“I thought the physicality in the collision was quite fierce out there as well. So I think the combination of forcing a couple of offloads plus a proper hit and both teams having a full go at the breakdown, made it a bit stop-start and scrappy.”

The match also proved how costly a yellow card can be, with the Lions slipping from 8-3 up to 17-8 down with their player off the park, while Benetton’s yellow saw the Lions move from 22-all to 34-22, which was enough daylight to make it a comfortable finish to the match.

For the Lions it was their third yellow card in their past three games and that is something they will want to fix ahead of their final match of the season against Dragons in Wales later this month.

“Especially if you lose a player in the spine, so if it’s a prop, hooker, five lock, eight, nine, 10, 15, I think it has a big effect on the team,” admitted Van Rooyen.

“To lose our 10 while we had momentum on attack just breaks that momentum and gives a bit of relief to the opposition and vice versa with their yellow card.

“It’s our third yellow card in three games, not for the same kind of thing, but it’s costly.”