URC result: Lions shock Glasgow Warriors to stay alive in URC

The Lions are still alive in the United Rugby Championship!

With one round of matches remaining in the regular season the Lions still have a chance of finishing in the top eight for a place in the quarter-finals after producing a remarkable performance at Ellis Park on Saturday to beat the log-leaders Glasgow Warriors 44-21 in a round 17 match.

With just one match to play before the quarter-finals are contested, against the Stormers in Cape Town in two weeks’ time, the Lions are ninth on the points table, among a big group of teams who’ll all have hopes of winning in the last round and progressing.

For now though the Lions can celebrate a quite stunning performance in beating the Warriors, who went into the weekend’s action as the top-placed team.

After losing captain Marius Louw to injury before kickoff and then Emmanuel Tshituka to injury before 10 minutes were up, the Lions were dealt an even bigger blow when replacement loose forward Ruan Venter was red carded for a dangerous tackle towards the end of the first half.

On top of that, the Lions also lost No 8 Francke Horn to the sin bin for 10 minutes.

Second half thrills

None of these setbacks though seemed to bother the home team.

After an evenly contested first half, in which both teams scored a try and the Lions led 8-7 at the interval, the Lions came alive in the second spell, employing their ball-in-hand approach to perfection and running the Warriors off their feet.

Glasgow had edged ahead early in the second half with a second try, but from the 51st minute the Lions took charge and scored tries through Edwill van der Merwe, Rabz Maxwane (his second), JC Pretorius and Sanele Nohamba to charge into a commanding 36-14 lead.

The Warriors scored a third converted try in the 70th minute before Nohamba slotted a penalty and Hanru Sirgel scored a sixth try for the home team to seal a thrilling win.