JOHANNESBURG – The Lions scored five tries as they edged the Pumas 29-28 at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon for only their second win in this year’s Currie Cup competition.
The home team led 22-14 at the break, but two yellow cards in the second half for the Pumas made their task of catching, and overtaking, the Lions a tough task.
Swys de Bruin’s men are now two wins from seven matches, while the Pumas are three from seven.
In a ding-dong first half, the Lions were on the board as early as the 53rd second when Ryan Kankowski went over. Ruan Dreyer, Marco Jansen van Vuren and Madosh Tambwe – who benefited by collecting an excellent cross-field kick by flyhalf Ashlon Davids – also crossed for first-half tries.
For the Pumas, Stefan Ungerer and Lambert Groenewald got their names into the try-scorers column in the first 40 minutes.
After half-time the Pumas lost Jerome Pretorius to the bin for a high tackle, but his team scored next, through Groenewald again, before Lions centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg powered his way over the line after a strong burst in midfield.
Pumas wing Ruwellyn Isbell then scored his team’s fourth try in the 66th minute to make it a one-point game going into the closing stages, but the binning of
Hugo Kloppers in the 73rd minute made the visitors’ task nigh impossible.
Points-Scorers
Lions
– Tries: Kankowski, Dreyer, Jansen van Vuren, Tambwe, Janse van Rensburg. Conversions: Davids (2).