By Gavin Rich.
Wing Quan Horn chased down a rolling ball in the in-goal area with two minutes to go to make sure of both a deserved 31-18 win over Cardiff and a bonus point to go with it in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Cardiff Arms Park on Friday night.
The Lions already looked like winners as they led by six points after a dominant second-half performance where they were in charge of both the battle for possession and territory and, had they taken some earlier opportunities, might already have had it wrapped up.
But it took Horn’s chase down to make sure and secure the Lions their second successive win in Wales as the Johannesburg team’s challenge suddenly starts taking on impressive shape.
The Lions had centre Marius Louw as their standout, with the former Cell C Sharks centre excelling both on defence and with his carrying and offloading.
He was the deserved recipient of the man of the match award, but several other players would have challenged him for the award, including several forwards as well as flyhalf Gianni Lombard, who in addition to a good night off the kicking tee also delivered in his key playmaking role in general play.
It was a game of two halves, with the hosts enjoying most of the territory and possession in the first half.
However, the Lions’ excellent defence coupled with good discipline ensured they managed to hang in, even though Cardiff kicked penalties in the 10th minute and 26th minute to take a 6-0 lead before then kicking on to 13-3 when they finally broke through the Lions defence for a try three minutes before halftime.
That might have been the cue for Cardiff to start thinking they had taken control and would draw away, but the turning point in the game might have come on the stroke of halftime when the Lions pack drove strongly at the Cardiff defence and referee Sam Grove White awarded them a penalty try to cut the deficit at the break to three points, with Cardiff just leading 13-10.
The Lions were clearly motivated by that and came out firing in the early minutes of the second half.
ICE-COOL LIONS
They blew a few chances but were starting to take proper control through their pack and it wasn’t a surprise when a driving maul put PJ Botha in for a try that was converted by Lombard.
That put the Lions into the lead at 17-13 for the first time and it was never relinquished as they camped in Cardiff territory after that.
As the Lions became dominant in the territory and forward battle, so Cardiff began to make more and more errors, and give away penalties through their indiscipline.
By the hour mark the penalty count was 15-3 against Cardiff and they faced an uphill battle in their quest to make any impression in the game.
Still, the Lions didn’t get the scoreboard going to reflect that dominance, so it would have been a relief for them when after a period of sustained driving near the line a ball came back out of a loose scrum and scrumhalf Morne van den Berg went over for the try that with Lombard’s conversion put the South African team ahead 24-13.
With 17 minutes to go and Cardiff not getting into the Lions’ half, it looked like the Johannesburg team was on the way to victory but Cardiff weren’t quite finished.
In the 68th minute they finally managed to get into the Lions half after forcing a rare penalty and Shane Lewis went over off a rolling maul in the left corner.
That gave Cardiff some hope as they were within a converted try of the win, but instead of losing their composure the Lions were ice-cool in reacting to the setback and continued to control the game, with Cardiff being forced to attack from deep inside their own territory in their hunt for the seven points they needed.
That just led to more mistakes and it was the Lions who did most of the attacking, with it not coming as a big surprise when Horn chased down the kick that both sealed the win and secured the bonus point as they march on to Edinburgh next week with a record of two wins in two starts on their overseas tour.
SCORES
Emirates Lions 31 – Tries: PJ Botha, Morne van den Berg and Quan Horn; Penalty try; Conversions: Gianni Lombard 3; Penalty: Gianni Lombard.
Cardiff 18 – Tries: James Botham and Shane Lewis; Conversion: Jarrod Evans; Penalties: Jarrod Evans 2.