A new-look Super Rugby competition began on Saturday with two thrillers in South Africa won by home teams the Western Stormers and the Golden Lions.
The southern hemisphere franchise championship has been trimmed from 18 teams to 15 to try and halt dwindling crowds and TV audiences, and many lopsided matches.
Judging by the many empty seats at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and Newlands in Cape Town, many rugby union supporters remain unconvinced that the leaner version would work, but those who stayed away missed out as the Stormers held off sustained pressure from Argentina’s Jaguares to triumph 28-20 and the Lions edged the Coastal Sharks 26-19 in another tense tussle.
Photo: AFP
There was start-of-season rustiness, but the uncertainty of the outcomes compensated.
Lions and Springboks skipper and loose forward Warren Whiteley aptly summed up the fare when he said: “I was pleased with the result, but not our performance.”
“We lacked rhythm. After putting three or four phases together, our moves often collapsed and that is something to work on,” he added.
However, the heroic manner in which the Lions repulsed a string of late Sharks surges toward the try-line thrilled the forward back after an eight-month injury layoff.
“The character of the team came through in those dying minutes. We remained calm under intense pressure and that was a real positive,” Whitely said.
A key factor for the Lions was their scrum dominance.
Sharks skipper and lock Ruan Botha admitted that being constantly pushed back and off the ball at scrums had a major impact on the result.
“You cannot build attacking momentum when constantly back-pedaling at scrums. Come Monday, we need to investigate what went wrong and fix the problem,” Botha said.
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