The Lions moved within touching distance of a spot in the top eight after clinching a 44-12 victory over Leinster at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
LIONS THRASH LEINSTER: RECAP
The result lifted the Lions to 11th place in the standings, but they are level on log points with Edinburgh (eighth), Connacht (ninth) and Ulster (10th).
Leinster are now just one point clear of Glasgow Warriors with four rounds remaining while the Lions climbed into the top eight.
Leinster were blown away inside the opening 15 minutes of the clash as the Lions ran in three tries put them on the way to a victory which boosts their play-off hopes.
Trialing 22-0, Leinster had two tries of their own disallowed either side of the break before a try-double by centre Ciaran Frawley get them on the board early in the second half.
But that didn’t stop the Lions party. The hosts — through the impressive Emmanuel Tshituka and Francke Horn — crossed for three more tries to wrap up the result in style.
CASH’S VERDICT ON THE GAME
“A bit of errors in our back 40, 50 in terms of skills, plus penalties – if you’re going to give Leinster penalties in those attack zones you’re going to have to defend well,” the Lions head coach said after the game.
“But what I’m proudest about is the fight and defence – the character in defence – and the willingness to keep them out. In the 80 minutes it’s probably our best character fight this season, which is obviously well done to the players, it’s really good.
“To have some counter attack from scraps and ball on ground [and] to then finish it off is delightful; if you work that hard on defence and get an opportunity to use it, it’s good to see.”
Lions captain Marius Louw, echoed his coach’s sentiments: “We knew that if we were going to dominate tackles there would be opportunities [to counter] so we focused more on counter-rucking. We definitely slowed the ball down a few times.
“We had a big focus on second efforts in the breakdown and I think we did that well. We knew Leinster attack quite tight because they want to bunch you in a bit and then they take you out wide. Second half they spread the ball a little more but we could see they were getting tired,” the Lions leader added.
“I think our line speed forced them back inside and they got a little reward … but we sorted that out as well. And from then on we were able to get turnovers, and because they were attacking tight there were spaces out wide.”
Discussion about this post