In the end it came down to one good line-out win, a well executed drive and a try by Siya Kolisi that separated the Lions and Stormers.
The 77th minute score, and the conversion by Kurt Coleman, put the Stormers ahead for the first time in their pulsating Super Rugby match at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday – and then the visitors hung on for dear life to snatch a 22-19 victory.
But the Lions could have drawn the match in the dying seconds had they opted to kick a penalty, or even won it had Howard Mnisi not lost the ball after being tackled by Damian de Allende while going in for the try. It was a sensational end to a thrilling match; the Stormers making it three wins in a row, the Lions losing their third game on the trot.
A gutted Lions coach Johan Ackermann felt his side were better on the day and should have won. “My view is the best team didn’t win,” he said.
Allister Coetzee, though, saw it differently. “In context, the better teams play the big points well. We were poor in the line-out all day, but when it mattered, we won our line-out, drove over and converted the try,” he said.
“I thought the Lions were brave to go for the win at the end, but in Super Rugby you have to take your points. You need to get something out of your home games.”
Lions captain Warren Whiteley said he backed his players at the death as they opted to tap and go in an attempt to score a match-winning try, rather than kick at goal and settle for a draw. “It’s the nature of this team … if we go down we want to go down fighting. I think it was the right option to go for it. We had the momentum behind us and we’ll always back ourselves as individuals and each other.”
Ackermann said he couldn’t fault the effort of his team following two defeats. “I’m very proud of the guys. They showed great fight, exactly what I asked of them. There was guts out there and you can ask yourself why things like this happen. We did everything we wanted to except win on the scoreboard … you ask yourself why we couldn’t score a try at the end. But we’ve got to stand up and fight again.”
The statistics from the match show the Lions won the set pieces, with not much separating the sides in the other areas of the game. Whiteley, too, said he was proud of the response he got following two weeks of lacklustre performances.
“The coach asked us in the week to stand together, to bring back the brotherhood and to play as a team again. We did that, we showed character and fight and it was a fantastic effort. It’s a heartbreaking defeat,” said Whiteley.
But let’s take nothing away from the Stormers. They weren’t nearly as clinical as they’d been against the Bulls and Blues – they weren’t given the chance to be by the pumped up Lions – but they kicked their points, scored the try when they needed to and then defended like “Trojans”, according to Duane Vermeulen.
Said Coetzee: “We were vulnerable after starting with two wins and we made a lot of errors today (Saturday) but sometimes you play badly and still win. The Lions threw everything at us, so I’ve got to laud my team’s character. We’re comfortable where we are as a team and what we’re doing. We’re playing a good brand of rugby and are in a good place. We haven’t played the perfect game yet or really hit our straps, but I’m pleased with where we are.”
The Lions face the Blues in Auckland this weekend, while the Stormers host the Sharks. - The Star