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Lions make gains on conference rivals in less than successful week for South African sides

Ross Cronje readies the ball for a scrum. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

On a weekend when their South African Conference rivals – the Bulls, Sharks and Jaguares – all failed to win, it was the Lions who managed to register a vital victory, which allowed them to move away from the foot of the table into fourth place, above the Stormers, who were not in action this weekend.

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The Lions survived some anxious moments late in their Super Rugby match against the Waratahs but managed to hold on for a close, hard-fought 29-28 win in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon. Both teams scored four tries at Emirates Airline Park.

The opening half was a fast, open affair with several missed tackles which led to three tries by both sides. The Waratahs converted all three of their tries which saw them go into halftime with a two-point advantage at 21-19.

The teams scored one try piece in the second half but it was a successful penalty goal by the Lions’ replacement back Shaun Reynolds that finally secured victory.

NSW scrumhalf Nick Phipps opened the scoring for the visitors and he was followed by Michael Hooper and Rob Simmons, with Bernard Foley slotting all three conversion kicks. Springbok wing Aphiwe Dyantyi grabbed the home team’s first try, while Stephan Lewies and Kwagga Smith also went over for two more home tries.

After the break, Springbok wing Courtnall Skosan scored from a sweeping move while Tom Staniforth crashed over for the Waratahs’ fourth try of the afternoon.

Saturday’s victory saw them move to fourth place on the local log with 26 points from 11 games and six wins. The Lions host the Highlanders next Saturday while the Waratahs now travel to Brisbane for their Australian derby with the Reds.

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Earlier, the Crusaders were in impressive form when they dismantled the Bulls with a 45-13 triumph in their clash at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday evening.

The defending champions scored four tries in the first half to lead by 26-6 at the break, and proceeded to score three more in the second half for a commanding victory. Crusaders flyhalf Richie Mo’unga gave a lively performance for the visitors while their speedy right wing Sevu Reece helped himself to a hat-trick of tries.

The first half was a fast and frantic affair and it was the Crusaders who made their intentions clear right from the start by speeding up play and not allowing the home side any time to settle. They used quick lineout throws to unsettle the home side and clever kick passes to stretch the defence, while their finishing was also clinical.

The Bulls would not have been satisfied by this performance, on the eve of their four-match Australasian tour.

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A fortunate bounce of the ball – which looped over the head of Handre Pollard – allowed Mo’unga to run in for the first of two tries. He was followed over the line by Mitchell Dunshea (lock), who scored his maiden Super Rugby try, and Reece.

The home team replied with two Pollard penalty goals in an otherwise forgettable opening 40 minutes, which left them with a mountain to climb against the rampaging Crusaders.

Reece opened the scoring in the second half for his second try and to put his side in an even bigger commanding lead. The right wing scored a third one just after the hour mark when he jumped high into the air to collect another clever cross field kick to score try number six for the visitors.

All Blacks lock Scott Barrett completed the scoring for the visitors when he finished off a clever lineout move. Midfielder Burger Odendaal scored a consolation try for the Bulls, who simply made too many errors and missed too many tackles.

Meanwhile, the Sharks gave another impressive performance on the road but they unfortunately went down 29-23 to the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday morning (SA time) in their last Super Rugby tour match through Australasia.

It was an entertaining fixture between two evenly matched teams, with the men from Waikato taking a 17-13 lead into the break through two tries and a penalty goal. The Chiefs eventually scored four tries, three conversions and a penalty goal, while the Durbanites replied with two converted tries and three penalty goals.

The Sharks did extremely well to play themselves back into a potential winning position and led 23-17 with just under 20 minutes to go – the result of good defence, powerful forward surges and good tactical kicking from Curwin Bosch.

However, two quick tries in the last 13 minutes tilted the momentum and scoreboard in favour of the Kiwis. Chiefs midfielder Anton Leonard-Brown dotted down before halfback and interim-captain Brad Weber scored another try straight from the restart.

The Chiefs led 29-23 going into the final few minutes, but the Sharks turned over possession deep inside their own half, and in a tense finish, the visitors forced the men from Waikato to defend for 18 phases before Bosch made an unfortunate handling error after the fulltimee hooter.

The Sharks can be very pleased with the overall outcome of their three-match tour which started with a win over the Waratahs in Sydney and a draw against the Crusaders in Christchurch. They now return to Durban for a well-earned break next weekend and then resume action when they host the Lions on 25 May in another big local derby.

The South African conference continues to be highly contested – is one team ready to take control heading into the final weeks of the competition?

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 11 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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