LIONS versus blowhard hurricanes

Go LIONS< Boshoff misses two conversions and they knock on near hurricanes tryline.

The Emirates Lions were given a cold hard reminder that Vodacom Super Rugby isn’t the Absa Currie Cup, as they stumbled to a frustrating 22-8 loss to the Hurricanes at Emirates Airline Park on Friday night.

The Lions dominated every aspect of the game, every statistic and every part of the park – except for the scoreboard – as the Hurricanes simply tackled their hearts out to ensure a solid victory.

Of course on a night where both flyhalves employed by the home side had a poor game – neither could dominate like they intended, not kick the ball in the direction they were aiming – the Lions have only their self to blame for the defeat, as a plethora of handling errors, poor passes and overzealous moves simply played into the opposition hands.

It’s not often you see a backline as accomplished as the Hurricanes be as quiet as they were at Ellis Park. All they had to do was tackle, and this they did with glee.

And the Lions, with so much possession, with so much ball, simply couldn’t execute what they had trained to do all week. Time after time they got themselves into the right position, punched the hole in the defence, but then chose the wrong option, made the wrong pass, and paid the consequences.

The stats tell a clear story. The Hurricanes made double the tackles, had half the running metres and had double the penalties against them. And yet they won, away from home and with little possession to speak of.

Rugby is a simple game, especially at this level. For all the fancy footwork employed by the Lions, they were guilty of not respecting the scoreboard. They didn’t take the points when on offer, and spurned kicks at goal at other times.

It started badly when Marnitz Boshoff missed three kickable penalties. In between the Lions turned down three more to go for the sideline. On all three occasions they dropped the ball metres from the line.

Elton Jantjies was hardly better, clearly continuing the mantra of running at all costs. And while the spurts are entertaining, rugby is a game where points make a difference. If you continually turn down the chance to get them, then it is likely you will end up on the losing side.

When they got it right – as in Ruan Combrinck’s try – it looked beautiful. Punches up the middle by Ross Cronje and the impressive Malcolm Marx led to surges by Lionel Mapoe and Warren Whiteley. Combrinck finished it off with powerful determination.

But a momentary lapse in defence, and the Lions were behind again. Beauden Barrett was calm under pressure, slotting his second penalty before Jason Woodward broke a tackle and sent TJ Perenara away for the try.

Boshoff’s first successful penalty at the end of the first half was more a relief for Lions fans than anything else.

At 11-8 at the break there was still a belief they would bounce back in the second stanza.

But it was the Canes who came back stronger, buoyed by their defensive performance and knowing they were close to a great win. The Lions continued to try and attack, and continued to fail, pushing passes too hard, or landing them at the feet of the next player. It seemed no matter how hard they tried they were destined to fail.

In fairness, referee Rohan Hoffmann was far to lenient on the Canes, despite a lopsided penalty count, and often ignored players at the breakdown slowing down the ball while off their feet or offside, but even with this in mind, you couldn’t escape the feeling the Lions would have struggled anyway to get the points they needed.

Barrett kept his head, slotted two more penalties to take the game away from the Lions, and then drove the final nail into the Lions coffin with an easy blindside move off the final scrum to send Matt Proctor over and make the scoreline look precisely the opposite to what happened on the field.

The Lions will still wonder how they lost this one.

The truth is that unless the Lions find a way to be a lot smarter in this year’s competition, to be a lot more direct and clinical, and not deny themselves the points when presented to them, they will forever stay Super Rugby’s Cinderella.