Surprise package Lions roar to narrow triumph over Dragons to retain unbeaten URC status
The Lions continued with their impressive start to the 2024/25 United Rugby Championship campaign when they sealed a 23-19 victory over the Dragons at Rodney Parade on Sunday.
As the scoreline suggests, this was a tightly contested affair and although the Dragons outscored their visitors by three tries to two, the Lions got the rub of the green in the end and held on for the win.
Quan Horn and Jarod Cairns scored the Lions‘ tries while Nico Steyn succeeded with a conversion and a penalty. Sanele Nohamba also slotted a penalty and a conversion.
For the Dragons, Wales back-row Taine Basham led the way with a brace of tries while Harri Keddie also crossed the whitewash and Lloyd Evans slotted two conversions.
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Following a lively opening, the Lions took a 10th-minute lead when a break from scrum half Morne van den Berg was the catalyst for Horn to outflank the defence and score.
The Dragons’ response was swift as Keddie intercepted Steyn’s telegraphed pass and showed exceptional pace to out-sprint the cover on a 70-metre run to the line.
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The visitors then suffered two blows in quick succession. First lock Darrien Landsberg left the field with a back injury before hooker Franco Marais was sin-binned for booting the ball away from a ruck when in an offside position.
The home side capitalised immediately when Basham finished off a driving line-out before Steyn kicked two penalties in quick succession to give his side a 13-12 interval lead.
Two minutes after the restart, the Dragons regained the lead when Basham crashed over from close range for his second try.
Evans converted but Lions kept in contention with a penalty from replacement Nohamba before Cairns brushed aside a weak tackle from Angus O’Brien to gallop 20 metres to the line.
Nohamba converted to make it 23-19 and leave the game firmly in the balance going into the final quarter.
Dragons replacement Will Reed missed the chance to make it a one-point game by missing an angled 30-metre penalty so Lions were able to hold on for a valuable four points.
The teams
Dragons: 15 Angus O’Brien, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Joe Westwood, 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Jared Rosser, 10 Lloyd Evans, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Taine Basham, 7 Harri Keddie, 6 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 5 Matthew Screech, 4 Ben Carter (c), 3 Leon Brown, 2 Brodie Coghlan, 1 Rodrigo Martinez
Replacements: 16 Oli Burrows, 17 Cameron Jones, 18 Chris Coleman, 19 Ryan Woodman, 20 Dan Lydiate, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Will Reed, 23 Ewan Rosser
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Erich Cronje, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Nico Steyn, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (c), 7 Jarod Cairns, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Reinhard Nothnagel, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Juan Schoeman
Replacements: 16 PJ Botha, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 Conraad Van Vuuren, 19 Ruben Schoeman, 20 Renzo Du Plessis, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Henco van Wyk
Referee: Fillipo Russo (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Adam Jones (WRU), Rhys Jones (WRU)
TMO: Stefano Penne (FIR)
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