Lions regain roar at home against Dragons

The Ivan van Rooyen-coached Lions secured a maiden home victory of the season and drew first blood against the visiting Dragons, who they will play three times in less than two months, with a solid if unspectacular 33-25 win at Emirates Airline Park on Sunday.

Flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse, brother of Springbok scrumhalf Jaden, was named Champion of the Match, with an impressive personal tally of 21 points to guide his team home. The 21-year-old No 10 may not have been selected for the Springboks and SA A end-of-year tour but there is a sense  he is something special and one for the future.

The Lions enjoyed a terrific northern hemisphere tour with a hat-trick of away wins, against the Ospreys, Cardiff and Edinburgh, but until Sunday the Johannesburg-based franchise had not won at home since April 30. However, they did enough to subdue the visiting Welsh side, who only won two round robin matches last season from 18 fixtures.

The Dragons, who were aiming to become the first Welsh side to win on SA soil in the United Rugby Championship, were unable to make history.

After both flyhalves — Henrikse and Sam Davies — exchanged a pair of penalties early on. The Lions extended their first-half lead courtesy of a try from loose forward Ruhan Straeuli, who crashed over from close range. The five-pointer came shortly after Dragons captain Ross Moriarty was yellow-carded for collapsing a rolling maul.

Earlier, the Lions also had a player yellow-carded after Emmanuel Tshituka tripped an opponent when on the attack. At second glance, it seemed accidental but referee Sam Grove-White was correct according to the letter of the law.

The Lions’ set-piece functioned well without a line-out lost in the first stanza and exerted dominance at scrum time.

The Lions took a 19-6 lead into the break and never looked like relinquishing it.

But the second half started in the worst possible fashion for the Lions, with Henco van Wyk, fresh from SA A duty, yellow-carded for head contact at a ruck, and shortly thereafter Sio Tomkinson dotted down for the visitors from a pinpoint cross-kick.

The Dragons notched three tries in total — two well-worked five-pointers in the second half — but the Lions were full value for their eight-point win and scored a hat-trick of tries.

The Lions host the Scarlets on Sunday, while they kick off their Challenge Cup campaign away to the Dragons on December 10.