Lions roar, Bulls falter in thrilling weekend of Highveld derbies

The Lions roared in picking up a comfortable 30-23 win over the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Ellis Park, while the Bulls faltered in flopping to a 29-19 loss against the Sharks at Loftus over the weekend.

A superb first half performance from the Lions set them up for the win, with them impressing on both attack and defence, as they scored three tries while not allowing the Stormers over the whitewash to take a 24-6 lead into the halftime break.

In the second half the visitors fought back, dotting down two tries of their own, but they were never really in the contest as they had to rely on a penalty from flyhalf Jurie Mathee on the fulltime hooter to get them within seven points to pick up a losing bonus point.

Backline magic

The Lions tries in the first half were wonderful attacking efforts from their backline, with man-of-the-match Quan Horn heavily involved in them, but coach Ivan van Rooyen credited the forwards in giving their backs the freedom to play their game.

“The backs often get the ball in (late) phase to finish. But the hard graft starts up front to give them that freedom. So I thought our set piece was really good and we know we have an exciting backline. When they get front foot ball and start playing it’s really exciting,” said Van Rooyen.

The only real disappointment for the Lions was their inability to score another try in the second half to secure a try scoring bonus point, with them choosing to rather make the game safe in the closing stages.

“In the early stages of the match the Stormers were in our 22m and got penalties but didn’t go for poles, and our forwards managed to stop them well,” explained Lions captain Francke Horn.

“If you look at the result we won by seven points. So if we had gone to the corner and didn’t come away with points, we wouldn’t have had a 10 point lead over the last five minutes.

“That is something that I will look at going forward. But I think because we had the points on the board, we were safe going into the final moments of the game.”

Bulls blown away

For the Bulls they were blown away by a fantastic second half performance from the Sharks, which secured the Durban side the double over their Highveld rivals.

The Sharks edged a tight first half 10-7, before the Bulls took a 12-10 lead early in the second half, only for the Sharks to blitz them with three tries, to take a 29-12 lead, with the hosts then scoring a late consolation try.

“They selected a really quick backline. If you look at it man for man, that is their strength,” said Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White after the match.

“Grant Williams, Yaw Penxe and Jurenzo Julius are really quick players. Even Lukhanyo Am, who played centre, has played on the wing in the past.

“It just shows you they have genuine speed. We were exposed 50 yards out by pure pace. It’s something we have to look at, selection wise. They have sevens rugby players at the back and once they made line breaks, we couldn’t catch them.

“They scored long-range tries and the reason for that is they outpaced us and there is no substitute for speed. The frustrating thing is, throughout the season we’ve generally been able to recover from line breaks and tackles from behind. We have to work on stopping teams getting past us.”