The Emirates Lions used their forward power to finish their Vodacom United Rugby Championship season on a high, beating Dragons in Newport 21-11 on Saturday.
The win meant the Dragons finished the season without a home win and despite the mammoth amount of errors from both sides the Lions always had enough in the tank to claim the victory
On a dry day in Wales, the match very much had a feeling that this was two bottom of the log sides fighting out for victory, but there is very little that can be faulted in both sides’ hope to try and make a game of it, even if the skill levels didn’t match.
The Lions’ scrum was dominant throughout while their forwards, when they got onto the front foot, made metres galore. Unfortunately there were more than enough handling errors that stopped promising attacks from the Johannesburg side.
Players such as Vincent Tshituka, Ruan Venter, Edwill van der Merwe, Henco van Wyk and Sti Sithole all caught the eye, but for all the good they did, the frustration was apparent with the amount of errors in the game.
Individually the Lions were far superior to the Dragons, but given the way the Welsh side’s season has gone thus far, they should have won by a lot more.
The Lions found themselves down early in the game as an errant pass was scooped up by Dragons lock Joe Maksymiw, knocked backwards and then sent into the hands of winger Rio Dyer to finish off in style in the corner.
The Lions hit back almost immediately after a massive scrum looped around to Van der Merwe, who had an easy run in to level the scores.
Two penalties by Will Reed on either side of halftime took the Dragons ahead and it looked as if they were on their way to getting some domination when a perfect running line from lock Ruan Venter found a perfect line to run through untouched and retake the lead for the Lions.
The Lions added another when Ruan Dreyer powered his way over from close range on the hour mark.
But while both sides had chances as the clock ticked down, most of them were spoilt by errors as over-enthusiasm trumped the day and allowed the game to degenerate into a match that will be easily forgotten.
The Lions will be happy though, especially as their young side marched on in Wales and scored another away win, and ensured they finished their season on somewhat of a high, even after a week where the headlines were more about who they left at home than who was on the field.
And for that there will be celebrations, even though their season proved that when it comes to the top teams in the URC, the Lions were still way off the pace of the front runners.
SCORERS
Dragons – try: Rio Dyer. Penalties: Will Reed (2).
Emirates Lions – tries: Edwill van der Merwe, Ruan Venter, Ruan Dreyer. Conversions: Jordan Hendrikse (3)