URC result: Lions floor Edinburgh at Ellis Park — five takeaways

The Lions put in another monster effort to seal their second win over a top five team in the last three weeks as they downed Edinburgh 15-9 at Ellis Park on Saturday.

It was a very stop-start game, dominated by defence and chances few and far between, and here are five key takeaways from the match.

Impregnable Defence

Both teams showed immense defence over the entire match, with chances few and far between as some brilliant tackling and breakdown work came to the fore.

The Edinburgh tryline was only breached once in each half by the Lions, while the home side completely defended their line, stopping the visitors a number of times including an extremely important hold up over their line with minutes to go in the match.

Brilliant set pieces

The Lions set-piece work was immaculate during the match. They repeatedly stopped the Edinburgh maul, including a very important stop on their own five metre which they turned into a defensive scrum and cleared their lines.

Their lineout was also superb while they also stole a couple of Edinburgh lineouts. The Lions scrum was on top for most of the match but didn’t seem to get the recognition it deserved from ref Gianluca Gnecchi.

Exploiting the blindside

The Lions exploited the blindside to great effect in the match, with both of their tries scored down it. The first saw a wonderful break by Morne van den Berg end with Edwill van der Merwe putting Jordan Hendrikse away.

The second was from a strong line out maul in the Edinburgh half, with some good interplay and offloading ending with Vincent Tshituka going over. The visitors defence was impressive all game but just couldn’t handle the blindside play.

Breakdown

The Lions forwards put in a huge shift at the breakdown. The back three of the Tshituka brothers and Francke Horn were constantly making a menace of themselves, disrupting the ball and making vital steals, while the locks and front row also got in on the action.

A number of crucial turnovers were made with the visitors on attack in the Lions 22m, including one in the final minutes of the match which proved vital in the end.

Kicking

In tight games the accuracy of the kickers often plays a big part in the outcome, but luckily for the Lions it didn’t prove to be after flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse missed two important kicks. With very few chances he went wide with a tricky long range penalty attempt from out wide, but it was his conversion attempt from his own try that was almost costly as Edinburgh were never behind by more than a converted try in the game.

The visitors’ kicking was on point with wing Emiliano Boffelli slotting both his kicks and fullback Henry Immelman slotted a monster drop goal.

Scorers

Lions

Tries: Jordan Hendrikse, Vincent Tshituka; Conversion: Hendrikse; Penalty: Hendrikse

Edinburgh

Penalties: Emiliano Boffelli (2); Drop Goal: Henry Immelman