The Emirates Lions secured a 34-13 bonus-point win over Cardiff Rugby keeping their hopes alive to sneak into the URC top eight.
The first half was played at an incredible pace and although the Lions led 16-03 at the halftime break, Cardiff was still very much. The second half lost a lot of its pace and two late tries scored by the Lions secured a bonus-point 34-13 win to keep their URC playoff hopes alive.
The Lions started like a house on fire and Ruan Venter scored the first try of the match after just eight minutes of play. Ruan Dreyer doing brilliant work pulling Venter across the tryline.
With seventeen minutes played a Marius Louw penalty kick was collected by Quan Horn to score the Lions' second try to lead 14-00. Minutes later a scrum penalty allowed Tinus de Beer to convert a penalty which reduced the Lions lead to 14-03.
The match was still being played at a blistering pace and following several attempts by the Lions to cross Cardiff's tryline, Sanele Nohamba converted a penalty to lead 17-03 and ten minutes still to play in the first half.
Sanele Nohamba converted an early penalty to which Cardiff scored off the back of a lineout-maul to reduce the Lions lead to 20-10 after nine minutes played in the second half.
Ten minutes later Tinus de Beer added a second penalty to reduce the Lions' lead to 20-13.
The match deteriorated to a stop-start affair, however, with seven minutes to play Emmanuel Tshituka scored from the back of a five-meter lineout-maul to make this a two-score margin, leading 27-13.
With a minute to play the hardworking Emmanuel Tshituka scored the Lions' bonus-point try to secure a deserved 34-13 bonus-point win.
Scorers:
Emirates Lions: Tries: Ruan Venter, Quan Horn, Emmanuel Tshituka (2). Conversions: Sanele Nohamba (2), Gianni Lombard (2). Penalties: Sanele Nohamba (2).
Cardiff Rugby: Try: Corey Domachowski. Conversion: Tinus de Beer. Penalties: Tinus de Beer (2).
Teams
Emirates Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Erich Cronje, 12 Marius Louw (c), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sanele Nohamba, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Ruan Dreyer. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 JP Smith, 18 Conraad van Vuren, 19 Reinhard Nothnagel, 20 Emmanuel Tshituka, 21 Hanru Sirgel, 22 Jordan Hendrikse, 23 Gianni Lombard.
Cardiff Rugby: 15 Cam Winnett, 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Ben Thomas, 11 Theo Cabango, 10 Tinus de Beer, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Mackenzie Martin, 7 James Botham, 6 Ben Donnell, 5 Rory Thornton, 4 Seb Davies, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Evan Lloyd, 1 Rhys Carre. Replacements: 16 Liam Belcher, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Rhys Litterick, 19 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 20 Alun Lawrence, 21 Ellis Bevan, 22 Jacob Beetham, 23 Max Clark.