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Lions bounce back against Sunwolves, Stormers end miserable streak
By Ben Spratt
The Lions bounced back from a first Super Rugby defeat of the year with a 40-38 win against the Sunwolves on Saturday, while the Stormers ended a three-match losing run.
Johan Ackermann's Lions had been edged out by three points against the Blues last week, losing for the first time in this campaign, but it was their turn to secure a narrow victory when they faced the struggling Sunwolves.
The South African Conference leaders were matched all the way until the closing stages at Ellis Park Stadium.
Sunwolves tries from Kotaro Matsushima, Craig Millar, Hosea Saumaki and Kazuki Himeno cancelled out the efforts of Andries Coetzee, Marvin Orie, Malcolm Marx and Aphiwe Dyantyi, the winless visitors leading 31-26 with 20 minutes remaining.
But Marx went over a second time shortly afterwards and Rohan Janse van Rensburg's try killed the game, a score from Atsushi Sakate at least rescuing the Sunwolves a second bonus point of the season.
The Lions have a 10-point lead at the top of their conference ahead of the Sharks - winners earlier - and the Stormers, who triumphed as EW Viljoen scored a brace in a much-needed 37-20 victory over the Blues in Cape Town.
Viljoen got his first try just two minutes into a dominant first half, Raymond Rhule and Dewaldt Duvenage also going over as the hosts took a 24-3 lead into the break.
Akira Ioane then crossed for the Blues, but Viljoen's second 10 minutes after the restart made later tries from Michael Collins and Rieko Ioane irrelevant in terms of the result, although the Stormers were denied a bonus.
The reliable Damian Willemse kicked three penalties as well as converting all four home tries.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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