Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Lions had nothing to lose heading into their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against Connacht in Johannesburg on Saturday, and that much was evident by the error-ridden, yet entertaining performance they dished up.
AS IT HAPPENED |
Lions 30-33 Connacht
The visiting Irishmen were far from clinical themselves, but they did enough to manufacture a thrilling 33-30 win that went from being a dull affair to a blockbuster as the quality improved.
The Lions, looking to run the ball from everywhere, lacked basic application with wayward passing, poor handling and inaccurate kicking plaguing their first half performance.
They were comfortably the better team by the final whistle, though, with Connacht on the ropes and barely managing to hold onto the advantage they had gained earlier in the match.
There were many moments of encouragement for the Lions, as there have been all season, and Rabz Maxwane’s try towards the end of the first half off a superb Wandisile Simelane line break was one of those.
That moment gave the Lions a sniff, seeing them go into half-time 14-8 down after Connacht had raced to a 14-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes.
It didn’t help that Ruan Dreyer was yellow-carded for collapsing a maul that led to a penalty try early on, but Connacht would have backed themselves to put the game to bed after manufacturing that early advantage.
That didn’t happen, and the Lions kept throwing everything at their opposition in sometimes quite frantic fashion.
Connacht, meanwhile, slowed the game down wherever possible, perhaps struggling with the highveld altitude.
The visitors extended the lead to 17-8 with a Jack Carty penalty shortly after half-time, but Jordan Hendrikse narrowed the gap to 17-11 after a sustained period of Lions attack before Carty knocked another one over to make it 20-11 heading into the last 30 minutes.
Lions scrumhalf Morne van den Berg then caught the Connacht defence napping, taking a quick penalty from 5m out to dart over the line with the tacklers flat-footed.
Hendrikse added the extras, and at 20-18, the contest was in the balance before a third Carty penalty took it out to 23-18.
The nail in the coffin came shortly after that when Connacht scored their third try. It came off an attacking lineout, with the ball going to centre Bundee Aki, who barged over one defender before offloading to Tom Daly, who scored.
The conversion sailed over, making it 30-18, and with that distance between the sides, the Ellis Park crowd went relatively quiet.
The Lions would not go away quietly, though, and they hit back almost immediately with an expertly-worked rolling maul that was then launched out left where Edwill van der Merwe was on hand to finish.
Then, a stunning individual effort from Burger Odendaal – complete with a dazzling sidestep after taking the ball at pace – saw the Lions level it all up at 30-30 with just nine minutes left.
Carty then missed a routine penalty, but he was on target soon after that, making it 33-30 with five minutes to go. The Lions finished strongest, but they were simply out of time.
This is their 10th loss of the season as they remain stuck in 12th position on the log. Connacht, meanwhile, are 10th with a slim chance of making the playoffs.
Scorers:
Lions 30 (8)
Tries: Rabz Maxwane, Morne van den Berg, Edwill van der Merwe, Burger Odendaal
Conversion: Jordan Hendriske (2)
Penalties: Hendrikse (2)
Connacht 33 (14)
Tries: Cian Prendergast, Penalty Try, Tom Daly
Conversion: Jack Carty
Penalties: Carty (4)
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