Despite sending an under-strength side down to PE last night, John Mitchell’s resurgent Lions started and finished well to record a 30-24 victory over Alan Solomons’ Southern Kings.
A slow start from the hosts, punctured by some sloppy play allowed the Lions to capitalise and three quick tries from their lightning three-quarters had the Kins staring down the barrel after half an hour. Big Ronnie Uys barreled over the line shortly before the whistle to give his team a sniff, but at 10-22 down at half time, the Kings had it all to do in the second period.
Some harsh words from the coaching staff, coupled with some good play by a pair of former Lions in scrumhalf Jacques Coetzee and flyhalf Jaco van Schalkwyk (later replaced by Monty Dumond) saw the Kings take the lead in the second half. Tries by Paul Perez and Boetie Britz moved them out to a 24-22 advantage and the Kings were looking good for their second Super Rugby franchise scalp, before former Sharks under 21 flank Renaldo Bothma broke their hearts with a late try. Scrumhalf JP Joubert atoned for the missed conversion by stroking over a late penalty to give the Lions a 6-point win.
Scorers: Kings 24 (10): Tries: Ronnie Uys, Paul Perez, Boetie Brits. Conversions: Jaco van Schalkwyk, Monty Dumond (2). Penalties: Van Schalkwyk.
Lions: 30 (22): Tries: Joubert Engelbrecht, Tonderai Chavanga, Jannie Boshoff, Renaldo Bothma. Conversions: Hein Cronje (2). Penalty: JP Joubert, Cronje.
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A step in the right direction as far as our depth is concerned …now lets wait and see if we can string a couple of wins together for real come Superugby time.
@csb (Comment 1) : I don’t wanna say this out loud, but your boys are really starting to put together a string of impressive performances.
@csb (Comment 1) :
time will tell 😕
Hopefully they can beat a few overseas teams..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 4) : true and then we can take over and white wash the lions to the bottem of the log well hope we do
If the lions win the bulls they will move up a few places in my rankings.
I really think john mitchell is starting to make a difference. Does anyone have an idea what the sale vs bath full timw score was? I fell asleep