Lions survive dramatic comeback

The Johannesburg side went into the break leading 30-7 after a dominant first-half performance, but were outscored three tries to none by the Bulls in the second half. The win moves the Lions four points clear at the top of the standings,  

The Lions started like a house on fire and after a tighthead in the Bulls half the ball was sent wide before a pinpoint cross kick from Marnitz Boshoff found Courtnall Skosan who gathered for the opening try. Boshoff converted to give his team a 7-0 lead after four minutes.

Boshoff extended the lead with a penalty in the 14th minute before the Lions went on the attack again. After sustained pressure in the Bulls' 22-metre area prop Jacques van Rooyen bulldozed his way over the tryline, but he was held up. 

With an attacking scrum five metres from the Bulls' tryline, the Lions had a perfect platform to launch another attack, but they could not find a way past the Bulls' defence. Instead it was a drop goal by Boshoff that extended the away team's lead to 13 points in the 18th minute.

The lions looked menacing on attack with Skosan causing the Bulls' defence all sorts of problems with his sniping runs. However, it would be from a Bulls' mistake in their own 22 where the Lions would get the next try. Franco Mostert powered his way over for the try in the 23rd minute after Howard Mnisi capitalised off a loose pass by the home side.

After another Boshoff penalty, the Bulls tried their best to get back into the game, but their best resulted in an intercept try for wing Ruan Combrinck in the 34th minute. Boshoff converted and the Bulls looked buried at 0-30 down.

The Bulls had their best opportunity to score two minutes from half-time after testing the Lions' defence in the red zone. However, Mostert recued his team with a great steal on the ground. They did eventually get that try in first-half extra time after fullback Warrick Gelant found space on halfway before passing to Jambo Ulengo who sprinted in for the score. 

The Bulls' made a great start to the second half but were let down by silly errors in the Lions' red zone. The Lions' scrum dominance also continued where they left off in the first half. They got the first points of the half in the 52nd minute through another penalty.

After some sustained pressure in the Lions' 22 and after a number of penalties, the Bulls finally opened their account in the second half after Arno Botha bashed his way over for a try after some good work by his fellow forwards at a line-out.

That try seemed to spur the Bulls on and after another good line-out drive and some direct play by their backline in the Lions' 22-metre area, Deon Stegmann pushed his way over for try. After a Schoeman conversion the Bulls were just 12 points adrift of the Lions. 

With 15 minutes left the Bulls were very much in the game and they dominated possession. They were also starting to find more holes in the tiring Lions' defence. It was after another potent attck when Gelant and Ulengo did magnificently well to keep the ball in play after four consecutive kicks with Ulengo eventually getting a hand onto the ball to get his team's bonus-point try in the 69th minute.

The Lions had a chance to put the game to bed with just six minutes remaining, however, a knock on by Ross Cronje at a ruck five metres from the Bulls' tryline kept the home team's chances of a win alive.

Those chance went up in smoke two minutes later when Boshoff converted a penalty to put his team out of reach. 

Man of the match: Courtnall Skosan looked threatening whenever he had the ball, while Jacques van Rooyen caused the Bulls all kinds of problems up front. However the award goes to Franco Mostert for his all-round performance on park and for getting on the score sheet as well. 

Scorers:

For Blue Bulls:

Tries: Ulengo 2, Botha, Stegmann

Cons: Schoeman 4

For Golden Lions:

Tries: Skosan, Mostert, Combrinck 

Cons: Boshoff 3

Pens: Boshoff 4

DG: Boshoff 

Teams:

Blue Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Pieter Labuschagne (captain), 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Dean Greyling.

Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Rudolph Snyman, 19 Deon Stegmann, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouche, 22 Burger Odendaal.

Golden Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Nicolaas Hanekom, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9  Ross Cronje, 8 Fabian Booysen, 7 Stephan de Witt, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Martin Muller, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Jacques van Rooyen.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Julian Redelinghuys, 18 Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 19 Albertus Smith, 20 Jaco van der Walt, 21 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 22 Sampie Mastriet.

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen

Assistant referees: Jaco Pretorius, Jaco Kotze

TMO: Johan Greeff