Thirteen-man Lions beat Pumas

The men from Johannesburg, despite being reduced to 13 men in the final 10 minutes, recorded a 44-27 win over a willing and resilient Pumas outfit at Ellis Park on Friday.

With Springbok flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff back to his best, the Lions outscored the visitors by five tries to three – two of the home team's tries of the penalty variety.

The first penalty try came after the dominant Lions scrum twice shoved the Pumas pack back near their line – leaving the referee with no alternative but to award the five-pointer,

The second was from far more cynical action, Juan-Claude Roos being sent to the sin bin for deliberately slapping the ball down with the Lions looking likely to score a try.

The other tries were a mixture of creative brilliance and brute force – with the MO likely to come in for some scrutiny in one of the five-pointers he awarded.

The Lions dominated the set pieces – winning a number of scrum penalties, one which was turned into a penalty try, and also dominating in the line-outs.

It was not a game for the purist, given the error count.

The Pumas will reflect on their lack of discipline, but in truth they could not say they deserved this one – despite their fighting spirit.

Trailing 10-20 at half-time they came out with an intent which was more than matched by the Lions.

A total of 41 points were scored in that second half and three yellow cards were dished out. Two of those were to the Lions as they withstood a final, desperate assault, but by then they had the cushion they needed.

More telling was the dismissal of the Pumas No.10 and ace-kicker JC Roos, for a deliberate knock-down as the Lions stormed through. Not only did that concede a penalty try, but it deprived the Pumas of the chance to chip away at the lead as the Lions surrendered penalties under pressure. They went for line-outs and came away with nothing from three attempts.

It was a fractured start to the match, but the Pumas immediately applied the pressure, with Francois de Klerk again playing a commanding role. They rushed the Lions into numerous errors, but while Roos had the power, he did not have the direction and two penalty attempts fell away.

It was almost against the run of play that the Lions gained a turnover and flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff, as he has done so often, slammed home a 50-metre drop goal to take the lead at 3-0 after seven minutes.

But from another penalty, the Pumas boldly went for the line-out and from that flank Marnus Schoeman broke blind to score in the corner. Roos added the extras for a 7-3 lead after 21 minutes.

But that was a major turning point. The Lions became more organised and the forwards set up good platforms, dominating the breakdowns.

Good line-breaks kept the Pumas on the back foot, and only unforced errors halted the momentum. The Pumas had to crack. First a Boshoff penalty, then an exceptional break by centre Harold Vorster, scoring under the posts, broke the Pumas' spirit. While Roos was able to add another penalty, it was but balm to an open wound.

The ultimate humiliation came with a penalty try as the Pumas scrum folded under Lions pressure, and all of sudden, in a 20-minute passage of play the Lions had had scored 17 points to three for a 20-10 half-time lead.

Then came a wild period of totally unscripted play.

From the start of the second half, the Pumas caught the Lions napping, which resulted in right wing Bernado Botha scoring in the corner. From the resumption, Courtnall Skosan replied, taking advantage of good hands and bad tackling to maintain the lead at 27-17 just three minutes into the half.

A Roos penalty kept the visitors in touch and when Stefan Watermeyer stretched over from a great break, the Pumas must have fancied their chances, 27-all with 28 minutes to go.

But that was as good as it got. Boshoff kicked another penalty on his way to a personal haul of 19 points and the penalty try from Roos's indiscretion made the gap too wide. Replacement centre Nicolaas Hanekom sealed it off with a wonderfully angled run.

It was the Lions' second bonus-point win of the season, having seen off the EP Kings last week.

Man of the match:  For the Pumas there were the usual suspects – Stefan Watermeyer, Juan-Claude Roos (his yellow car aside), Francois de Klerk, Uzair Cassiem, Marnus Schoeman and Lubabalo Mtyanda. Courtnall Skosan showed his finishing ability Harold Vorster ran a sublime line for his try, Howard Mnisi worked hard, Jaco Kriel was a menace at the breakdown and Franco Mostert did enough to be very close. However, our award goes to Lions flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff, who showed why he became a Springbok. Not only has he regained his best form, but he has not missed a kicked at goal this season.

The scorers:

For the Godlen Lions:

Tries: Vorster, Skosan, Hanekom, Penalty tries 2

Cons: Boshoff 5

Pens: Boshoff 2

DG: Boshoff

For the Pumas:

Tries: Schoeman, Botha, Watermeyer

Cons: Roos 3

Pens: Roos 2

Yellow cards: Juan-Claude Roos (Pumas, 58 – professional foul, deliberately slapping the ball down), Ruan Combrink (Golden Lions, 73 – professional foul, slapping the ball out of an opponent's hands), Albertus Smith (Lions, 75 – professional foul, hands in the ruck near tryline)

Teams:

Golden Lions: 15 Ruan Combrinck, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Harold Vorster, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Ruaan Lerm, 7 Albertus Smith, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Martin Muller, 4 Franco Mostert, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen.

Replacements: 16 Robbie Coetzee, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 19 Steph de Wit, 20 Lohan Jacobs, 21 Nicolaas Hanekom, 22 Jaco van der Walt.

Pumas: 15 John-Wessel Bell, 14 Bernado Botha, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Stefan Watermeyer (captain), 11 Rosco Spekman, 10 Juan-Claude Roos, 9 Francois de Klerk, 8 Lambert Groenewald, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Marius Coetzer, 4 Lubabalo Mtyanda, 3 De-Jay Terblanché, 2 Frank Herne, 1 Khwezi Mona.

Replacements: 16 Francois du Toit, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Jason-Colin Fraser, 19 Jaco Bouwer, 20 Reynier van Rooyen, 21 Justin van Staden, 22 Hoffmann Maritz.

Referee: Stuart Berry

Assistant referees: Ben Crouse, Oregopotse Rametsi

TMO: Johan Greeff