Sloppy Lions overcome spirited Sunwolves

The four-tries-to-one, bonus-point victory had moments of quality, but mostly the spirited home team lured the Lions into a scrappy affair.

With their set-piece dominance the Lions should have won by a lot more.

However, a combination of handling errors, leniency from the match officials towards the constant illegal tactics of the Sunwolves and the Lions inability to maintain focus saw the Japanese outfit emerge with a lot more credibility than expected.

The Lions may have dashed the Sunwolves' hopes of a fairytale start in Super Rugby, but the new Tokyo franchise emerged with credit from a pulsating game.

The bloodbath predicted to unfold on the pitch failed to materialise, as the Sunwolves frustrated the South African visitors for long periods in the Tokyo sunshine.

When captain Shota Horie squeezed over on the hour mark for the team's first-ever try in Super Rugby it triggered pandemonium among a crowd of 25,000 howling Sunwolves fans.

Samoan flyhalf Tusi Pisi had converted an early penalty to settle the home side's nerves but the Lions came roaring back with tries from Robbie Coetzee and Courtnall Skosan.

Looking to build on a 12-6 half-time advantage, the Lions came out all guns blazing after the break, Jaco Kriel bursting through to score after a clever pass from captain Warren Whiteley and Jantjies adding the conversion.

The Sunwolves closed the gap with Horie's try, but after Pisi was sin-binned with 15 minutes left the Lions quickly capitalised and a breakaway score from Lionel Mapoe effectively killed off the game.

"We will get better," promised Horie, one of the heroes of Japan's astonishing three World Cup victories last year, including a 34-32 shock upset over two-time champions South Africa.

"I never imagined I would play Super Rugby in Japan," added the Sunwolves hooker.

"It's like a dream come true. It was nice to score our first try but I didn't do anything special. I was lucky the ball just popped up for me just before the try-line."

Sunwolves coach Mark Hammett praised his players for their effort.

"We can always handle losing if we know the players have given everything, so I'm very proud," said the former All Black, who only just made it back to Japan after flying home to New Zealand following the death of his mother last week.

"No doubt at times we had to scramble but our bravery was a real positive to work on. One thing we have to get used to as a new team is that we won't always get the rub of the green. But we have to get used to that and keep playing our game."

The South African visitors could have won by a larger margin but frequently fumbled the ball in tantalising positions under pressure from a swarming Sunwolves defence.

However, they still picked up a bonus point by scoring three tries more than the hosts.

"We can't really complain with that," said Whiteley.

"But credit to the Sunwolves. They put us under real pressure and we have great respect for what they have achieved in a short period of time."

Man of the match: Sunwolves captain Shota Horie was rewarded for his effort with a well-worked try, while most of his teammates tackled their hearts out. No.8 Edward Quirk was the Sunwolves' most productive player. Lions backs like Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combrink, Lionel Mapoe and Howard Mnisi had their moments, while scrumhalf Francois de Klerk was his team's stand-out back, In a sloppy performance the best efforts came from the forwards – replacement hooker Malcolm Marx, lock Franco Mostert, as well as flanks Jaco Kriel and Warwick Tecklenburg. However, our award goes to Lions captain Warren Whiteley for stamping his  authority on the game.

The scorers:

For the Sunwolves:

Try: Horie

Con: Pisi

Pens: Pisi 2

For the Lions:

Tries: Coetzee, Skosan, Kriel, Mapoe

Cons: Jantjies 3

Yellow card: Tusi Pisi (Sunwolves, 65 – repeated infringements, offside at the breakdown)

Teams.

Sunwolves: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13 Harumichi Tatekawa, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Yasutaka Sasakura, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Edward Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Liaki Moli, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Timothy Bond, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2 Shota Horie (captain), 1 Keith Inagaki.

Replacements: 16 Masataka Mikami, 17 Takeshi Kizu, 18 Koki Yamamoto, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Yoshiya Hosoda, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Derek Carpenter, 23 Hajime Yamashata.

Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Francois de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley (captain), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Ruan Dreyer.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Jacques van Rooyen, 19 Robert Kruger, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Jaco van der Walt, 22 Harold Vorster, 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg.

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Shuhei Kubo (Japan), Aki Aso (Japan)

TMO: Takeshi Hareda (Japan)

AFP & @rugby365com