United Rugby Championship: Lions 37-20 Cardiff Rugby
- Published
URC highlights: Lions 37 - 20 Cardiff
United Rugby Championship: Lions v Cardiff Rugby |
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Lions (24) 37 |
Tries: Van den Berg, Van der Merwe 2, Tshituka Cons: Hendrikse 4 Pens: Hendrikse 3 |
Cardiff (13) 20 |
Tries: Summerhill, Botham Cons: Evans (2) Pens: Evans (2) |
Cardiff remained winless away in the United Rugby Championship as South African team Lions earned a hard-fought bonus-point win in Johannesburg.
A try from Morne van den Berg and Edwill van der Merwe's double helped the Lions to a 24-13 half-time lead - Aled Summerhill scoring for Cardiff.
James Botham went over to narrow the scores before two Jordan Hendrikse penalties stretched the Lions' lead.
Vincent Tshituka claimed the bonus try at the death.
Home fly-half Hendrikse's 17 points with the boot also played their part as Lions won for the first time at Ellis Park since June.
Outside-half Jarrod Evans recovered from a head knock to make his 100th appearance for Cardiff while boss Dai Young made five changes from their 48-12 defeat by Ulster in Belfast.
In came full-back Matthew Morgan, Ben Thomas, and forwards Corey Domachowski, Shane Lewis-Hughes and Will Boyde.
Wales flanker Ellis Jenkins came off the bench in Johannesburg after being released from Six Nations duty.
Willis Halaholo played against Ulster but after his return to the Wales squad Ben Thomas partnered Rey Lee-Lo, who made his 100th appearance in the competition.
Lions, captained by Springbok flanker Jaco Kriel, welcomed back lock Reinhard Nothnagel and brothers Vincent and Emmanuel Tshituka, who all missed last month's 21-13 defeat at Leinster.
Van den Berg's sharp response to Burger Odendaal's powerful drive allowed the scrum-half to gather and touch down, with Hendrikse nailing the first of his conversions.
The hosts' power and pace told twice for Van der Merwe with impressive open-side Vincent Tshituka's superb offload providing the second of his tries.
Cardiff produced a classy effort as Summerhill finished off a fine move in style after Boyde was denied on the video ref's advice.
But Hendrikse's kicking accuracy also paid dividends for the Lions as he added a penalty to his three first-half conversions.
Cardiff hit back soon after the break as Botham found himself in space out wide to score, Evans again converting.
Hendrikse added two more penalties to give the hosts a 10-point cushion going into the final quarter.
Cardiff went down to 14 men when substitute Kristian Dacey was sin-binned for unintentionally driving his shoulder into a head at a ruck, with his victim having moved into the Cardiff hooker's target zone.
And the visitors' efforts to claim at least a losing bonus point were in vain as Lions held them out in the dying minutes.
Cardiff were also left to worry over a first-half head injury suffered by centre Lee-Lo.
This fixture was originally scheduled for November but was postponed following the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, leaving Cardiff temporarily stranded in Johannesburg and having to isolate in England before returning to Wales.
It was the second Welsh defeat in South Africa this weekend with Scarlets having lost against Sharks on Friday.
The team from the Welsh capital go on to face Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday, 20 March while Scarlets are at Bulls two days earlier.
Lions: Quan Horn; Stean Pienaar, Wandisile Simelane, Burger Odendaal, Edwill van der Merwe; Jordan Hendrikse, Morne van den Berg; Sti Sithole, Jaco Visagie, Carlu Sadie, Ruben Schoeman, Reinhard Nothnagel, Jaco Kriel (capt), Vincent Tshituka, Francke Horn.
Replacements: PJ Botha, JP Smith, Ruan Dreyer, Ruan Venter, Emmanuel Tshituka, Nico Steyn, Manuel Rass, Tiaan Swanepoel.
Cardiff Rugby: Matthew Morgan; Owen Lane, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Aled Summerhill; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams; Corey Domachowski, Kirby Myhill, Dmitri Arhip, Josh Turnbull (capt), Matthew Screech, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Will Boyde, James Botham
Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Brad Thyer, Will Davies-King, Rory Thornton, Ellis Jenkins, Jamie Hill, Max Llewellyn, Hallam Amos
Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Assistants: Cwengile Jadezweni & Griffin Colby (SARU)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
