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Ulster lose to Lions but don't leave Jo'burg empty handed
By PA
Ulster fell to a 35-22 loss to Lions in Johannesburg but could take some encouragement from a point on the road in the United Rugby Championship.
Lions dominated the first half, taking the lead 10 minutes in through Rabz Maxwane before Kade Wolhuter kicked a penalty to make it 8-0 five minutes later.
The hosts’ powerful maul paid dividends again late in the first half as Francke Horn made it 15-0, but Ulster got on the board just before the break, with John Cooney touching down after the clock had turned red.
The visitors cut the deficit to 15-10 three minutes after the restart through Aidan Morgan but Lions responded quickly.
They put their maul to good use once again to allow Franco Marais to touch down, before Quan Horn broke four tackles to help set up Henco van Wyk moments later as they went 27-10 up.
Werner Kok’s first Ulster try cut the deficit on the hour mark and a late score from Corrie Barrett earned the bonus point, but Wolhuter had the final say for Lions at the death.
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Latest Comments
Apart from the scrum a really sloppy AB performance. Through successive coaching regimes they just don't seem to be able to cope with motivated and physically aggressive opposition, getting knocked off the ball and scrambling around with back foot ball. A lack of proper 10 means we are then not turning the opposition around and pinning them in their corners.
Go to commentsSheesh Goldie, South Africa actually lost two tests, IRE & ARG. Everyone got beaten at least twice this year so I'm not sure why the Boks are the "standard". I'd hate the ABs to follow their example. Our standard should be ABs (version 2015).
But I agree, the ABs are definitely in the B range. For me, it's a B+, the + mainly reflecting the lifting of the teams baseline from wobbly to now comfortably being able to win ugly.
Bring on 2025.
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