Lions roar to glory
29 Oct 2011
GARETH DUNCAN, reporting from Ellis Park, watched the Lions break their 12-year Currie Cup title drought with a 42-16 hammering of the Sharks.
After 12 years of silverware starvation, the Lions have finally fed.
The 26-point victory completed a dream campaign – which included a table-topping run throughout the league phase and an impressive 29-20 semi-final win over a WP side that had six World Cup Springboks in their match day squad. This result was also the Lions’ first Currie Cup final triumph at Ellis Park in 61 years.
The Lions wanted it more than their opposition. The Sharks, who struggled for momentum and lacked a clinical edge, looked second best for most parts of the match. The hosts ran faster, tackled harder and toiled tirelessly around the park. That determination – no – that hunger for victory influenced John Mitchell’s ‘no-name brands’ to thump a strong, Springbok-laden Sharks side.
Those who backed a win for the visitors pointed to the quality of their squad, which included seven World Cup Boks. But this match proved to be one game too much for the likes of Bismarck du Plessis and Beast Mtawarira, who struggled to make any trademark impact after long and tiring year. There was also a lack of cohesion, despite this group spending the past three weeks together.
The Lions, who’ve played generally the same side since day one of Super Rugby in February, worked like a well-oiled machine. But during this impressive team performance, the player who made the ultimate difference was flyhalf Elton Jantjies. The youngster showed Mitchell was correct in selecting him ahead of veteran Butch James during the play-off stages. After starring in the Lions’ semi-final win last Saturday, the 20-year-old displayed a Man of the Match performance as he kicked 24 points without missing one attempt.
The platform was set with a good showing in the first half. The Lions mixed moments of impressive attacking play with a resilient defence to hold a 19-6 half-time lead.
Jantjies and fullback Jaco Taute, who nailed a 57m penalty, traded penalties with flyhalf Frederic Michalak early on before wing Michael Killian scored the first try of the match. From a scrum in centre field, centre Doppies la Grange broke the Sharks defence through a set-piece move. His offload put Killian clear.
But it looked like the half would end badly for the Lions. Prop CJ van der Linde had a moment of madness in the 32-minute when he threw Sharks skipper Keegan Daniel over his shoulder whilst clearing a ruck. It earned him a yellow card. The Sharks built momentum with their one-player advantage and paid four visits to the Lions’ red zone. However, they couldn’t find a much-needed finish and the Lions escaped without conceding any points.
Then there was a controversial moment early in the second half when Willem Alberts scored a try that should not have been allowed. The Sharks flanker broke the Lions’ defensive line, but lost the ball forward in the process. However, the knock-on wasn’t sighted by the officials and referee Mark Lawrence, who seeked advice from his assistant, awarded the try. The Sharks were back in it as Michalak’s conversion made it 22-16. Game on.
The Lions, however, had other plans as that was the Sharks’ last score of the match. The following 31 minutes was arguably the best passage of play the Lions have showcased this year.
It was a strong performance that secured 20 points to seal the famous win. First, Pat Cilliers powered over from close range after the Lions attacked from deep. Jantjies added two penalties before Taute had the pace to finish another attacking move in the corner. The following conversion was the final nail in the Sharks’ coffin.
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827 Comments
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30 Oct 2011, 22:15 pm
@carol(carol)-749:
Who cares about YOU?
You are not and never will be a born S.African. Now notch that on your counting pole too.
30 Oct 2011, 22:16 pm
No-one cares vervet.
30 Oct 2011, 22:26 pm
Vokken despicaable onbeskofte kont.
30 Oct 2011, 22:29 pm
Worse than that stalker Great white palooka.
30 Oct 2011, 22:55 pm
@ET.(ET.)-748: @ET.(ET.)-750: All these EMOTIONAL stories are not very scientific from a self-proclaimed “scientific” thinker…
Mmmmm, nothing like catching a hypocrite red handed….
30 Oct 2011, 23:01 pm
@ET.(ET.)-750: hehe you’re a funny guy ExTraball… “And here too is Transie’s Bra’s
Response – remember how
excited was with this appointment and animatedly enthused with Gunt(‘C’ for G) about it one fine day not too long ago?”
clearly your “alter of truth” rubbish that you spew here is just convinient lies. i Transie excited about Mbalula?
ask Tacitus when he shows up here tomorrow he’ll tell you what i said about the guy when he was appointed.
if you keep up the lie, i’ll have to expose u again
30 Oct 2011, 23:05 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-755: Its like the story about the Bobb.ejan with hand in the hollowed out pumpkin… caught red handed, and the Bobbe.jan is too stupid to let go… His instincts overpower him… Yet again HG has has caught this Bobbe.jan ExtraThuvi…
30 Oct 2011, 23:07 pm
Welld one Lions…………great to see you with some silverware!
30 Oct 2011, 23:08 pm
Fun time again for a short while.
What is black-haired and brown and at=cts like a clown?
30 Oct 2011, 23:10 pm
@ET.(ET.)-751:
Oh, put a sock in it ‘Mr. Popular’ !!
30 Oct 2011, 23:10 pm
@ET.(ET.)-759: you?
30 Oct 2011, 23:11 pm
@ET.(ET.)-759: Your Philly Tranny girlfriend…? Naughty Bobbe.jan….
30 Oct 2011, 23:15 pm
wtf this phillified philadelphia bred sewer cockroach doing scumming around on a rugby blog with his phucked up plucked out of nowhere s’ex scandals as if it has ANY bearing on anything relevant to ANYONE here. And this phucked up sewer cockroach is supposed to be a scientifically educated doctor of medicine or some such phucked up garbage regurgetating around his phucked up non scientifically educated pathetically inbred head
30 Oct 2011, 23:18 pm
Vervet seems more interested in Soapies than Science.
30 Oct 2011, 23:24 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-755:
Is Mbalula’s s e x u al capers a sport? A new S.A. black sport?
But s e x is a science. The science of procreation which ensures the survival of the species
Do you realise that even the emotions is science as that basic human needr esides in the Limbic system of the brain which deals with our basest needs to survive as a species?
It is not my emotions but Mbalula’s but I will still claim the science.
Now follow Transfornication’s emotions go awry.
30 Oct 2011, 23:25 pm
@ET.(ET.)-759:
Should read acts.
30 Oct 2011, 23:30 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-762:
Quite wrong because I do not deal in those closer to 55 than say even 48 who get even more rapidly older because they smoke like a Philly chimney.
Philly has blonds whether they be Caucasians or the many Spanish-heritaged people around.
In a few hours it is open war as Vick and his Eagles take on the hated Cowboys of Dallas.
30 Oct 2011, 23:31 pm
@ET.(ET.)-765: It is not your claim, blouballas. It was Dawn that gave you that little lesson… I’m actually beginning to reckon that you are about as scientific as a water diviner …
30 Oct 2011, 23:33 pm
@ET.(ET.)-767: “open war as Vick and his Eagles take on the hated Cowboys”…. More emotional claptrap from the self-proclaimed “scientific” thinker…
My, oh my, you’re really getting caught out….
30 Oct 2011, 23:42 pm
@Transfornication(Transfornication)-756:
Are you again being dishonest? Did you appreciate the MJ education of the science in his baskets in his sport?
Are you about to deny talking to Gunt(‘C’for G) excitedly during the Indian cricket tour to S.A. just before Christmas, about “Fikile”?
At that time I never knew who you were talking about with that unfamiliar name but soon realised it was Mbalula who had just been appointed to that position a little earlier in the year.
I like the naked body so expose all you want as you have only your fantasies that you and your ilk thrive on, out of desperation. I even swim in the birthday suit sometimes. Have you tried it? It is a wonderful experience of being free(in an ocean) as a bird being in a tree.
Will your bra “Fikile” get the chop now? I say NO.
30 Oct 2011, 23:47 pm
@cab(cab)-386:
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-399:
lol
30 Oct 2011, 23:50 pm
these phucked outa sight scientists are so emphatically phucked through their phucked out heads its downright Philly phanny phuckadilly time in Philly phannyarse country.
Now sexuality is reduced to science, what next? these phucked outa sight second rate scientists gonna pretend they got shat into this world between their unsuspecting mothers thighs through some scientifically ordained act of randomly correlated scientifically regurgetated phucked outa sight self professed thesis.
30 Oct 2011, 23:54 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-768:
How drunk are you that you can dream up this “claim” s hit and attach it to a spin-stirrer.? You can “reckon” all you want from your poppy-seed muffins and mushroom induced hallucinations but you cannot change a thing of truth for like beauty it is a joy forever.
Now digest the s e x capers of your ‘Bok’s Minister of Sport for it is a fact and there is a liitle one around, maybe a Tokoloshe for you, to deal with.
30 Oct 2011, 23:56 pm
@ET.(ET.)-773: Caught out, my boy… Plain and Simple
30 Oct 2011, 23:57 pm
@Hell’s Shame(Helen’s Game)-768:
Speak to your Sham Poopal, as I am not in the habit of speaking to anyone with too much snot in the nostrils and sinuses.
30 Oct 2011, 23:59 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-774:
We don’t play cricket here to be caught out so dream on, but keep it plain and simple.
31 Oct 2011, 00:00 am
Does anyone else think ET writes like he is singing?:
“Speak to your Sham Poopal,
as I am not in the habit
of speaking
to anyone with too much snot in the nostrils
and sinuses.”
Very musically gifted our pet vervet.
31 Oct 2011, 00:01 am
How drunk are you
that you can dream up this “claim”
s hit and attach it
to a spin-stirrer.?
You can “reckon” all you want
from your poppy-seed muffins
and mushroom induced hallucinations
but you cannot change a thing of truth
for like beauty
it is a joy forever.
31 Oct 2011, 00:02 am
Anyway, well done to the lions team and the deserved win. Been a good year for them by the looks of it.
Still would have liked to have seen a Sharks win but you cant win em all.
31 Oct 2011, 00:03 am
I like the naked body
so expose all you want
as you have only your fantasies
that you and your ilk thrive on,
out of desperation. I even swim
in the birthday suit sometimes.
Have you tried it?
It is a wonderful experience of being
free(in an ocean) as a bird being in a tree.
31 Oct 2011, 00:04 am
Quite wrong
because I do not deal in those closer to 55
than say even 48
who get even more rapidly older
because they smoke like a Philly chimney.
Philly has blonds
whether they be Caucasians
or the many Spanish-heritaged people around.
31 Oct 2011, 00:04 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-779: “Still would have liked to have seen a Sharks win”… I like your work, big guy!
31 Oct 2011, 00:05 am
Makes no more sense if you sing song it though.
Still sounds like the senseless ramblings of a confused lab janitor.
31 Oct 2011, 00:06 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-779: At last, a kiwi who wanted the Sharks to win. Good on ya!
31 Oct 2011, 00:06 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-780: Yes, it is very EMOtional despite protestations to the contrary by the “Scientist”.
31 Oct 2011, 00:06 am
or could it be poetry?
31 Oct 2011, 00:11 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-783:
But it could make Haka.
Throw in some throat slits and it would be mean.
31 Oct 2011, 00:12 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-787: Lol, the haka works. Check this:
“Who cares
about YOU?
You
are not and never will be
a born S.African.
Now
notch that
on your counting pole
too.”
Yep, definitely Maori Haka.
31 Oct 2011, 00:42 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-788:
haha
I have sent this to the NZRU.
It will be performed by the ABs against the Boks only.
Now with lyrics like that, i am sure the Boks will destroy.
31 Oct 2011, 03:23 am
I see the Keo intellectuals are having a banter tonight. Lovely jubbly.
31 Oct 2011, 03:53 am
4,000,001 happy Kiwis:
each smiley face represents one year !!
Well done Lions.
31 Oct 2011, 07:21 am
@Eugene Terreblanche.(Eugene Terreblanche.)-765: I have never read a single post of yours which is coherent or intelligent. Rather they all reveal a sad, lonely, lost individual who longs to belong but does not know how. The contempt you draw from other bloggers appears to be little more than a sadomasochistic payoff that makes you feel some satisfaction that you have at least been noticed. If the company of other Saffas is so important to you, head on home.
31 Oct 2011, 07:31 am
well done lions.
havn’t seen that many ripped anuses and new ones torn in quite a while now.
enjoy the win…enjoy the cup…
but…and here’s the big but, lets see how you boys go in next seasons s15..at the leat this makes it a lot more exciting.
31 Oct 2011, 07:41 am
It just goes to show what can be achieved with a good coach!
Let this be a lesson to the selectors when selecting the new Springbok coach.
If we really want to win the next World Cup we have to select the best possible coaching team.
31 Oct 2011, 07:47 am
@ET.(ET.)-765:
Butsex is a science?
Your poor wife.
31 Oct 2011, 07:50 am
Transie, mshini, or anyone: could you please direct me to a web link that reports of heyneke Meyer changing the bulls game plan next year with pine Pienaar. Thanks much appreciated.
31 Oct 2011, 07:54 am
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-796:
what are getting at?
31 Oct 2011, 08:01 am
what are you getting at?
31 Oct 2011, 08:01 am
Bad luck Sharks.
Congrats to the Lions for a very good win.
So nice to see the pure joy on the players face after winning a legit final,none of the irb copy of wwe final we had at the rwc.
Rugby won,and what a great crowd.
31 Oct 2011, 08:06 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-777: @wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-778: @wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-780:
LMFAO
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