Lions roar to win but hard time still ahead

The SA sides had a weekend to remember in the United Rugby Championship (URC) after morale-boosting victories as the Bulls trampled over Munster at Loftus, the Sharks tore the Scarlets apart with a bonus-point win at Kings Park and the Lions roared to a resounding victory over Cardiff at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

The Lions overlapped Cardiff on the league points for their third win from 11 matches but they still have more ground to cover as the 37-20 victory only moved them one place fourth from bottom on the 16-team standings.

The Johannesburg side went into combat on Sunday licking their wounds after five consecutive defeats but found strength in their reserves to get over the line against the Welsh outfit to boost their faint hopes of a top eight finish.

The Lions had an ideal start as Morné van der Berg crashed over the try line in the opening minute with Jordan Hendrikse’s precision form with his first conversation indicating the No 10 was going to have a key role to play.

Hendrikse showed nerves of steel as he converted all four tries and scored three of the four penalties as the Lions outscored Cardiff by four tries to two.

Edwill van der Merwe scored two brilliant tries and Hendrikse’s conversations were spot on as the Lions kept the score ticking over, but they conceded needless penalties each time shortly after crashing over, allowing Jarrod Evans to eat away at the lead.

With the Lions leading 24-6 after half an hour, one of the penalties from the many handling errors was kicked for a line-out and the end result was a try by wing Aled Summerhill and Jarrod, in his 100th appearance for Cardiff, converted to ensure the Welsh trailed 24-13 going into the half time break.

The Lions had a sloppy start after the break as they allowed No 8 James Botham to crash over and cut the Lions lead to four points.

Cardiff’s Max Llewellyn and prop Dmitri  Arhip conceded two quick penalties from scrum and ruck infringements and Hendrikse was again equal to the task to kick the six pointers that gave the Lions a 10-point lead after an hour.

Despite Cardiff playing with a man down after Kristian Dacey was shown yellow with 18 minutes remaining, the Lions were lethargic after the restart and could not finish off their opponent and close out the match.

The SA side were lucky as Cardiff also failed to find higher gears but that was because Lions flanker Vincent Tshituka and No 8 Francke Horn were immense for the home side, who scored all three of their tries in the first half.

Despite the win, the Lions are still the bottom ranked side of the four SA teams on the URC log.

Wins for SA sides in home conditions in the next round will see them climb up the table but they may have left it too late as the top five sides — leaders Leinster, Ulster, Muster and Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh — have amassed significant leads over their rivals and are unlikely to make a mess of it.