The Lions were crowned the new champions of the SA Rugby Under-20 Cup when they beat DHL Western Province by 36-25 in a nail-biting final in Johannesburg on Saturday, to finish the season as the only unbeaten team in the competition.
The men from Johannesburg topped the log with five wins and a draw from their six league games and beat the Cell C Sharks by 59-18 in their semi-final two weeks ago to progress to the final.
DHL WP finished the season in second place on the log with four wins and two draws before beating the Vodacom Bulls by 42-17 in the second semi-final to book their place in the final at Emirates Airline Park.
The visitors outscored the hosts by four tries to three, but their discipline let them down and this allowed Jurich Claasens (flyhalf), the top points scorer in the competition, to slot five penalty goals in a match that saw the Capetonians fight back from 19-9 down at the break to take it down to the wire.
We sat down with rugby fundi's and selected a matchday 23 for the u/20 Championship: 15. Quan Horn (Lions), 14. Ebenezer Tshimanga (WP), 13. Henco van Wyk (Lions), 12. Tyler Bocks (Lions), 11. Boldwin Hansen (Lions), 10. Sacha Mngomezulu (WP), 9. Bradley Davids (Sharks), 8. Cameron Hanekom (Bulls), 7. Simon Miller (WP), 6. Jarrod Cairns (Lions), 5. Dylan de Leeuw (WP), 4. Connor Evans (WP), 3. Sebastian Lombard (Bulls), 2. Keagan Blanckenberg(WP), 1. Rhynardt Rijnsburger (WP). Replacements: 16. Heiko Pohlman (Lions), 17. Jaques Goosen (Sharks), 18. Corne Weibach (WP), 19. Reinhardt Ludwig (Bulls), 20. Izan Esterhuizen (Lions), 21. Jurich Claasens (Lions), 22. Canan Moodie (Bulls), 23. Jaques Rossouw (WP).