Advertisement

Impressive Lions bank another full house against improved WP

football02 August 2025 15:00
By:Gavin Rich
Share

The ADT Fidelity Lions made it two full house five log point hauls in a row at the start of this Carling Currie Cup campaign as they scored a comprehensive 40-19 win over DHL Western Province in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon.

The Lions scored five tries and a penalty try against three tries from a WP team that started off strongly and certainly delivered a much improved performance on their effort in the first round game against the Vodacom Blue Bulls in Cape Town a week earlier. However, while Province competed much better for possession in this game and showed some good attacking edge, the Lions were more patient and more clinical.

They also ran some excellent running lines and thrilled on occasions with their expansive brand of rugby against a team that also contributed to the entertainment value of the game. The Lions banked their bonus point try just short of the 50 minute mark and added the five points they garnered from this game to the five they managed in a 49-5 win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV the previous week to sit at the top of the log after two rounds.

WP will feel that while they were well beaten they probably deserved a try scoring bonus point but unfortunately for them they were too often guilty of not getting the final pass away when attacks looked promising. They can’t complain that they never had enough possession in this game, as beyond the hour mark the possession stats reflected a 57 per cent advantage for Zain Davids’ men.

Full marks to the Lions though for the way they managed to blunt the WP attacking threat with the way they slowed their possession at the breakdowns.

WP started off showing their attacking intent by running the ball back at the Lions from deep in their own territory from the kick-off. Their coach Labeeb Levy had asked for them to get in a good start after their slow one against the Bulls and in they enjoyed the early momentum leading up to Louw Nel dotting down the first try of the game off a driving maul in the fourth minute of the game.

DOBELA MAKES HIS MARK

That was the cue through for the man of the match, the Lions’ impressive flyhalf Lubabalo Dobela, to make his first impression of the game. But the Lions are a lethal attacking team, in this game also maybe a tad more patient than their less experienced opponents. They showed that when, off a set scrum on the halfway line, scrumhalf Nico Steyn made a superb break and then a good inside pass to Dobela put the flyhalf into the space he needed to sear through and score his team’s first try.

Flyhalf Kyle Nel hadn’t converted the WP try so when Dobela was successful with his conversion it put the Lions into a lead they were never to relinquish. The game was fast and furious and that quick tempo would have suited the Lions, with the visitors from the coast noticeably struggling with their adaptation to the altitude as their chests heaved in a desperate quest to take in more air in the first 20 minutes.

It is often said that that is the critical period for a team needing to adapt to altitude, and it would have suited the Lions that their opponents were unable to manage the pace of the game at that point. It looked inevitable that the Lions would score again although it took a penalty try for them to do it as Sti Sithole was penalised and yellow carded for obstructing a 16th minute Lions driving maul.

WP rightly opted to ask Smith to kick for posts when they got a penalty in a kickable position in the 22nd minute but Smith kicked it wide and then from the resultant restart to the game the Lions produced an electrifying long range attack that eventually set up winger Rabs Maxwane to weave his way in and out of the wide Province defenders to score the try that made it 21-5.

Province though were a much improved team on the one that lost so easily to the Bulls in the opener and their set phase play enabled their dangerous backs to get more ball to play with. Indeed, there was a fascinating statistic to hand when the Lions took their 16 point lead in the 25th minute - WP to that point had enjoyed 62 percent of the possession and 67 percent of the territory.

WP SHOWED PLENTY OF FIGHT

So there was enough pressure being exerted by WP for them to force the Lions to infringe, which they did once too often on defence as Steyn was pinged for a cynical foul that saw him yellow carded. With the Lions down to 14 men and the visitors back to full muster, it was the Cape side that finished the half strongly and it wasn’t surprising when flanker Gideon van Wyk dotted down off a close range attack on the line to cut the deficit to nine points with Smith’ conversion at halftime (21-12).

WP would have felt they were in the game then, but No8 WJ Steenkamp drove over to make it a 16 point game again in the 48th minute, to keep the pressure on the Streeptruie to keep playing catch-up rugby. They looked like making a fair fist of it, and certainly couldn’t be faulted for their willingness to show fight, when Nel dotted down for his second try from an almost identical driving maul to the one that he scored his first.

But if the visitors felt pleased with the conversion rate of their driving maul the Lions could feel even more so with theirs and it was in swivelling skipper Jaco Visagie over for two identical tries that the Lions effectively made the game safe.

Scores

ADT Fidelity Lions 40 - Tries: Lubabalo Dobela, Rabz Maxwane, WJ Steenkamp, Jaco Visagie 2; Penalty try; Conversions: Lababalo Dobela. DHL Western Province 19 - Tries: Louw Nel 2 and Gideon van Wyk; Conversions: Kyle Smith 2.

Advertisement