Lions’ runaway win over Leinster thanks to big tackles

The Lions racked up more than 40 points against high-fliers Leinster, but it was their effort on defence that most pleased head coach Ivan van Rooyen at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions made a fast start, leading 22-0 after just a quarter of an hour, but it was their stout defence that denied the visitors, who deployed a second string team in a chastening 44-12 defeat.

“What I am proudest about is the fight in defence, the character in defence,” said Van Rooyen.

“The willingness to keep them out. It is probably our best character fight of the season,” he said about the win that saw flank Emmanuel Tshituka tower above the rest. 

“To have counterattack and finish off is obviously delightful.”

Though there was much to crow about in the way the Lions exposed Leinster from deep, it was their effort without the ball that drew plaudits.

Perhaps the defining moment, or passage, arrived just before the break when sustained Leinster pressure was met by unremitting Lions' defence.

The hosts held their defensive lines under their poles to keep Leinster scoreless in the first half.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen lamented his team’s lack of accuracy when opportunity beckoned.

Captain Marius Louw who made his presence felt in the tackle and on the deck, explained why the Lions successfully shut down Leinster’s attack.

“We knew that if we were going to dominate tackles there would be opportunities. We focused more on counter rucking after we’ve made a positive hit. We had a big focus on second efforts at the breakdown.”

The Lions also showed their claws in the scrum with props Morgan Naude and Ruan Dreyer turning over the turf.

“He is the perfect picture of the modern prop, especially at loose head,” Van Rooyen said of Naude.

“He was unlucky with a couple of injuries that hindered that spurt that you expected in him coming through. But he’s had eight, nine games in a row where he is getting good minutes and doing well.

“It is nice to see someone who has been in the wilderness with three injuries getting that flow going. He was really good.”

It is, however, his team’s effort on defence that Van Rooyen would want to bottle and use in upcoming battles.

He explained the correlation between the Lions maintaining their defensive lines and feeling the heat in the context of the competition.

“We are with our backs to the wall in terms of must-win games. It goes hand in hand with that. Every time we have been with our backs to the wall we’ve done that. The trick is to reproduce that next week against Munster.”

But Louw was not getting carried away by the result. “Giving Leinster a 40-pointer is a confidence booster but it will lift Munster as well,” he said of next weekend’s clash.

There was disappointment all around for the other three teams, with the Sharks suffering a 21-10 defeat against the Glasgow Warriors in Scotland. A red card in the third quarter for the Bulls came at a high cost as they went down 27-22 against Munster in Pretoria and the Stormers suffered a 27-21 defeat against Ospreys in Cape Town.

The result saw the Bulls drop from third to fourth place on the standings with 46 points (nine behind Leinster, who managed to cling onto the top spot by one point), while the Stormers fell from fifth to sixth place on 40 points.

The win for the Lions kept them within range of a possible quarterfinal finish, still in 11th position with 39 points, while the Sharks managed to hold onto 13th place with 18 points.

With only four rounds of league matches left to qualify for the quarterfinals, the tournament is heading to a thrilling finish to the pool stages.