The British and Irish Lions maintained a 100 percent record on tour in South Africa with a 39-3 victory against the severely depleted kwaZulu-Natal Sharks on Wednesday.
Magnificent defending by a home team lacking nine regulars on Springbok duty restricted the winners to a 7-3 half-time advantage, but the touring team cut loose in the second half to romp home in their fourth tour match.
Next up are Western Province in Cape Town tomorrow and one week later a three-Test series against world champions South Africa begins in this Indian Ocean city.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“It was a very tough challenge and pressure paid off as we racked up a good score. It was also brilliant that we defended so well and conceded just three points,” Lions skipper and lock Paul O’Connell said.
Man of the match and Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips was equally thrilled: “This was a massive effort by the boys. As a number nine it is great to play behind our pack. Our win was created up front.”
The freezing weather that has enveloped much of South Africa was mercifully missing as the Lions defended a 99-year, 10-match unbeaten record against the Sharks.
And the visitors quickly established territorial supremacy with the home team camped inside their “22” for long periods and heroically holding out when tries seemed inevitable.
Lions No. 8 Jamie Heaslip did cross the line only to be held up and it took 23 minutes before they finally broke the deadlock through hooker Lee Mears after good work from scrum-half Mike Phillips and Heaslip.
Fly-half Ronan O’Gara converted to give his side a seven-point advantage that lasted six minutes before scrum-half Rory Kockott succeeded with his first penalty attempt.
There was a lively start to the second half with Phillips — considered a likely first Test starter — crossing the line on 42 minutes to drop a hint of things to come.
The big Welshman picked up the ball on the ‘22’ and evaded numerous tackles to go over in the corner for a try O’Gara failed to convert with his effort drifting wide of the left post.
Kockott was unlucky with his second shot at goal, a long-range penalty attempt that was accurate but fell just under the crossbar, and the Lions went further ahead soon after via a simple O’Gara penalty.
Sharks flanker Jacques Botes was warned by referee Jonathan Kaplan for constantly infringing and O’Gara slotted the resultant penalty from close range to give the Lions an 18-3 lead.
The home team were fading fast as the first-half heroics took their toll and wing Luke Fitzgerald scored his first try of this tour after Brian O’Driscoll drew two Sharks and passed to his unmarked Ireland teammate.
O’Gara converted from the touchline, the lead stretched to 22 points, and the Lions were as good as home with almost a quarter of the match still to go at ABSA Stadium.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier