Morne van den Berg won the battle of the No 9s with fellow Springbok halfback Jaden Hendrikse, and the Lions won the match 34-22.
It wasn’t quite that simple, but Van den Berg’s consistency in decision-making and Hendrikse’s inconsistency proved significant in influencing the Lions’ United Rugby Championship win at Ellis Park.
The Lions led 20-10 at halftime.
The win was the Lions’ third in succession against the Sharks at Ellis Park in the URC and their fifth in the last six match-ups between the two teams.
The wins on all three occasions at Ellis Park have been emphatic, with Saturday’s effort as convincing as the 38-14 last season and 40-10 in 2024.
Van den Berg, the Player of the Match, said the Lions were desperate to atone for conceding 50 points against the Bulls in their previous URC match at Ellis Park.
‘We had to pitch up and show what type of rugby the Lions can play. We let ourselves and our fans down against the Bulls. We had to be patient, build an innings, get our confidence back ... And we managed to do this.“
The Sharks, rejuvenated with back-to-back wins against coastal rivals the Stormers were a different team in composition, attitude and delivery against the one that stunned the Stormers in Cape Town and Durban.
Sharks coach JP Pietersen entrusted the youth to win in Johannesburg and chose this match to rest the core of his current Springboks. But it was one of his most experienced players, Hendrikse, whose cynical play in the 30th minute cost the Sharks a penalty, a yellow card and the match as the momentum turned within three minutes of Hendrikse’s sinbinning.
The Lions scored from the initial penalty, courtesy of prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye. From the restart Van den Berg launched the cleverest of short kicks for winger Kelly Mpeku to gather and from the recycle phase Van den Berg and Mpeku combined again with a kick, gather, sprint, offload and try.
It was the try of the match and the Lions had turned a 6-7 deficit into a 20-7 lead.
All momentum had shifted and the hosts controlled the remainder of the match, despite losing No 12 Bronson Mills to a yellow card because of a head clash with Sharks centre Francois Venter.
The Lions, a player down, scored first in the second half and the Sharks were well beaten.
Sharks No 12 Jurenzo Julius was powerful when carrying and the Sharks scrum was again strong, but individual and collective honours belonged to the hosts, who broke into the URC Top 8 with the bonus-point win.
Julius scored with the final act of the match, having had a wonderful effort cancelled because of an obstruction in the build-up to the try.
Van den Berg and Mills were the pick of the backs and Ntlabakanye, flank Ruan Venter, lock Oosthuizen and captain and No 8 Franke Horn were prominent throughout.
The Sharks, who had won three of their four matches against South African opposition (as opposed to just one in six against overseas teams), would have claimed the SA Shield with a win at Ellis Park.
Now they have to beat the Bulls at Loftus next Saturday to win the Shield and hope that the Lions lose to the Stormers at Ellis Park.
The Stormers, should they beat the Lions, could still win the Shield at Loftus in the South African derby if the Bulls beat the Sharks next weekend. The Bulls, with two successive wins, are also a SA Shield-winning option if they beat the Stormers and deny the Cape-based club any league points.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.