Super Rugby 2020: Lions come out second best against beastly Tahs!

In their fifth-round Super Rugby tie on Friday, The Waratahs got over the line in their run of five consecutive losses, by overcoming the Lions 29-17 in Australia’s Parramatta.

Read: Super Rugby 2020: South African teams gearing up for crunch weekend!

The Tahs scored five tries to the away side’s two after a poor start from Ivan van Rooyen’s team that cost them a firm grip on the overall proceedings. The Lions, who displayed some hunger in the second half, lacked the killer instinct to put the home side away.

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Morne van der Berg celebrates scoring a try with teammates during the 2020 SuperHero Sunday match between the Lions and Bulls (Image: BackpagePix).

The game saw a desperate Waratahs side strike early as the Lions defence faltered and failed at moments when they needed it to shine. That, coupled with a second-half where they had more than enough chances to capitalise, watched them slip to their third defeat in four games in this year’s competition.

It was a textbook blindside move and a slipped tackle that allowed prop Angus Bell to surge through for the opening try, and things didn’t get better when Ruben Schoeman was yellow-carded for lashing out at a Tahs defender that had illegally pulled him off a maul and to the ground.

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The Lions could not scare off the Waratahs in a fifth-round Super Rugby match played in Australasia (Image: Sourced).

Schoeman found himself on the wrong side of the rules book when he committed a transgression which saw the Tahs score twice after the latter was sent to the bin. The first came from a beautiful move where the ball moved through the hands to find flanker Lachlan Swinton on the wing to go over in the corner.

Jack Dempsey followed him onto the scoreboard soon afterwards and with an Elton Jantjies penalty to their credit, the Lions were 19-3 behind. They started clawing their way back when Swinton played Jantjies off the ball late and without using his arms to grab a yellow card, and the Lions responded with a rolling maul try to flanker Marnus Schoeman.

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The Lions will hope to trouble the Rebels in Melbourne next week after succumbing to the Waratahs (Image: Sourced).

Being down 19-10 at the break, the Lions dominated the opening part of the second half but couldn’t find a way through. Hacjivah Dayimani dropped a pass, which was scooped up by Michael Hooper for Kurtley Beale to feature twice in a counter-attack, that led to James Ramm’s first try for the team in the opposite corner.

Schoeman scored a second in a similar fashion as a late try by Tetera Faulkner, coming off a blindside lineout move that caught the Lions unaware, sealed the game for the Tahs. The relief on breaking the losing streak was apparent on the final whistle, but the Lions will need a lot more work, especially on defence if they are to trouble the Rebels in Melbourne next week.