Lions win cat fight and extend unbeaten run
The MTN Golden Lions came out on top in the traditional cat fight at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg when they beat the Toyota Free State Cheetahs 17-10 and extended their unbeaten run to 5 matches.
The Lions dominated the first half and the Cheetahs did pretty well to only trail by 5 points at the break. Lions had almost 80% of the possession and looked extremely dangerous when given just a inch of space, especially Jaco Taute, Lionel Mapoe and Elton Jantjies. Early penalties were exchanged by Sias Ebersohn and Elton Jantjies and the only try of the first half came when Elton Jantjies timed a pass perfectly to put Lions centre Lionel Mapoe into acres of space, Mapoe drew the last defender and put Michael Killian over in the corner.
The Cheetahs were however adamant on defense and kept the Lions out for the rest of the half. It also didn’t help the Cheetahs moral when Sias Ebersohn missed an easy penalty conversion shortly before half time. The score remained 8-3 to the Lions as the teams headed into the changing rooms.
The Cheetahs started the second half with a massive flourish but silly errors and a strong Lions defense quickly forced them into more errors and back under pressure. The Lions continued to apply the pressure and it didn’t take long before Elton Jantjies started slotting penalty after penalty to take the game away from the Cheetahs. Bundled with that, the Cheetahs also missed another two penalty conversions.
In a last minute flourish the men from Bloemfontein managed to score a converted try through replacement scrumhalf Tewis de Bruyn with another try not allowed when the TMO JC Fortuin adjudged Coenie Oosthuisen to be held up over the line.
Great win for the Lions as they extend their lead on the top of the log with the Cheetahs returning to Bloemfontein with plenty of question. Especially about their place kickers.
Scorers:
MTN GOLDEN LIONS:
Try: Michael Killian
Penalties: Elton Jantjies (4)
TOYOTA FS CHEETAHS:
Try: Tewis de Bruyn
Conversion: Riaan Smit
Penalty: Sias Ebersohn
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