That is it for our coverage of this clash. Thank you for following along with us.
FULL-TIME: Lions 31-42 Benetton. The Italians come away with maximum log points to stay in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs. As for the Lions, this result draws the curtain on their playoff aspirations.
Renzo du Plessis wins a penalty on the ground and the Lions take a quick tap after the siren sounds. They charge up field and make about 60 metres, but then lose the ball. That sums up the Lions game.
Benetton threw the ball directly into touch, but it doesn't matter. That piece of play took up crucial seconds on the clock.
The Lions are desperately looking to make up some ground, but Benetton beat them to a ruck and snatch back possession.
CONVERSION, LIONS, WOLHUTER. 31-42
TRY, LIONS, PRETORIUS. 29-42. The flank crashes over from close quarters.
With well under five minutes remaining, the Lions look set to lose this game.
The Lions are camped inside Benetton territory, but they are struggling to break through the defensive line.
Springbok Quan Horn has been a shining light in an otherwise abysmal Lions team.
Time is running out for the Lions.
The Lions are recycling the ball, but a lack of accuracy has seen them travel backwards instead of over the gain-line. Benetton's defence is suffocating these Lions. Scrum to the Lions.
The Lions are recycling the ball, but a lack of accuracy has seen them travel backwards instead of over the gain-line. Benetton's defence is suffocating these Lions.
Benetton's experienced front row campaigners are schooling the Lions' youngsters. They are scrummaging them into oblivion.
The Italians have been relentless in their contesting of the set-pieces today.
Renzo du Plessis goes on a searing run. He stays on his feet after taking contact to get the Lions close to the tryline. A couple phases later, Van den Berg fumbles the ball. That is the last thing the Lions needed from their Springbok.
CONVERSION, BENETTON, UMAGA. 24-42.
Another massive scrummaging effort by Benetton earns them a penalty. Umaga will kick at goal.
CONVERSION, LIONS, WOLHUTER. 24-39.
TRY, LIONS, VAN DER MERWE. 22-39. The hosts attack through the short side and the speedster steps off the wing to score a much-needed five-pointer.
The Lions fail to secure the ball at the lineout, Benetton then knocks on. Scrum to the Lions.
YELLOW CARD, BENETTON, CANNONE. The moment the visitors get one of their sin-binned players back, they lose another one.
JC Pretorius goes close to the tryline, but he is hold up in the in-goal area. TMO has been called upon for another dangerous tackle.
The Lions are playing under an advantage now as they are being urged on by the home crowd.
Benetton's Umaga attempted drop goal hits the outright and bounces back into the field of play.
The Lions have to wake up here. This is so poor from them.
Benetton are controlling things well.
Benetton are expertly slowing the game down while they are down to 13 players. Excellent game-management.
The Lions are their own worst enemies at the moment. They have all the momentum, but even with Benetton on the back-foot, the hosts fail to capitalise.
That is horrible by the Lions. They are attacking against a 13-men defensive line five metres from the tryline, but they kick away possession and it rolls over the dead-ball line.
YELLOW CARD, BENETTON. The visitors are down to 13 men.
The TMO has been called upon for a dangerous hit on JC Pretorius before the turnover.
And it all goes awry as Benetton force a turnover penalty two metres from the tryline.
The Lions need to show patience here.
And they earn a penalty from that pressure.
The Lions now have their tails up in the danger zone. This is much better urgency from the home side.
YELLOW CARD, BENETTON, RUZZA. The try-scorer is sin-binned for a deliberate slap down. Is this the opportunity the Lions needed to launch a comeback?
The Lions are under immense pressure here. They are not only getting outplayed, but there's no cohesion between their players.
CONVERSION, BENETTON, UMAGA. 17-39.
TRY, BENETTON, RUZZA. 17-37. The visitors go to the air and retain the ball. The Lions defence is caught napping and they score another try.
The Lions make their first lineout steal of the day. That is a timely intervention.
Once again, the kick-off is not fielded cleanly by the Lions. But they just about manage to secure possession. Van den Berg clears.
KICK OFF: Umaga gets us back underway for the second half.
HALF-TIME: Lions 17-32 Benetton. There's much to ponder for the home side at the midway mark of this crucial clash.
CONVERSION, LIONS, WOLHUTER. 17-32.
TRY, LIONS, LOUW. 15-32. The speculative kick works out well for Marius Louw, who chased it down and got a fortuitous bounce to score.
The Lions will have one last chance to narrow the gap here before the break.
CONVERSION, BENETTON, UMAGA. 10-32.
TRY, BENETTON, MENDY. 10-30. The winger goes on a solo run to score his second and Benetton's fourth try of the afternoon. Another costly unforced error by the Lions.
The Lions' impetus is gone.
Just as it looks like the Lions are building towards something, there's an error.
PENALTY, BENETTON, UMAGA. 10-25. This time it's straight bang between the uprights.
The Lions' discipline is slipping here. They concede another penalty at the ruck. Umaga will line up a kick again.
A big let-off for the Lions as Usage's effort sails wide.
Benetton win a kickable penalty and will Umaga will take another shot at goal.
It's all a bit too scrappy at the moment.
Benetton are lacking the fluidity we've seen them play with in the opening quarter. Their error count is mounting.
CONVERSION, LIONS, WOLHUTER. 10-22.
TRY, LIONS, RUAN VENTER. 8-22. The Lions roar back with a powerful driving maul.
Wolhuter kicks to the line. The Lions have to be next to score to stay within touching distance on the scoreboard.
Relief for the Lions as Qoma makes a dominant tackle and reacts first to contest the ball on the ground to win a penalty.
The Lions' defence in midfield and on the edge have been nothing short of abysmal.
The Lions need to regroup here. There's entire season hinges on the result of this game.
CONVERSION, BENETTON, UMAGA. 3-22.
TRY, BENETTON, MARIN. 3-20. Benetton are flying here. They score off a well-executed set move. That's three tries in 20 minutes. The Lions are in trouble now.
But the Lions are forced to track back into their own half as Benetton win another breakdown penalty.
Realising the need to dominate territorially, the Lions have switched things up and are now employing greater tactical kick game.
Nothing is going the Lions' way here.
PENALTY, BENETTON, UMAGA. 3-15. The flyhalf extends Benetton's lead to 12 points.
Big setback for the Lions as Francke Horn wobbles off with an injury. As one of this team's talisman, he will be missed.
We're a quarter of an hour into the game and the Lions' coaches are already looking worried.
The visitors find touch on the 10m line in Lions territory.
As the Lions enter the 22, Benetton's Ruzza is the first man in at the ruck and wins a turnover penalty.
The conversion is unsuccessful.
TRY, BENETTON, MENDY. 3-12. The Lions have been caught out again, as Mindy finishes off a well-worked team effort.
Umaga just executed a near-perfect touch-finder. Benetton on the attack close to the tryline.
JC Pretorius is playing like a man possessed. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of his teammates.
The Lions need to put that costly error behind them and fast.
CONVERSION, BENETTON, UMAGA. 3-7.
TRY, BENETTON, UMAGA. 3-5. Oh dear. The Lions comically fail to handle an up and under and the ball finds grass. Umaga collects the scraps and scores.
PENALTY, LIONS, WOLHUTER. 3-0. The flyhalf easily slots his long range effort.
Horn tracks back for the Lions and hoofs it back down to Benetton. The visitors run at the defence, but then concede a penalty. The Lions will kick at goal.
Schoeman loses control of the ball and Benetton kick in behind the Lions defence.
The Lions spring onto the attack immediately. They are recycling through a series of slick passes.
The Lions lose the ball forward. Benetton feed the first scrum and then clears it away with the boot.
Great start by the Lions as they snatch back possession from the restart. Untidy by Benetton.
KICK OFF: Quan Horn gets us back underway for with a deep kick-off.
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales).
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa), Hanru van Rooyen (South Africa).
TMO: Adam Jones (Wales).
In contrast, Benetton are currently in seventh spot, but have a really challenging run-in, with Saturday’s trip to Johannesburg followed by a journey to Cape Town to face the Stormers and then encounters with Glasgow (h) and Munster (a).
The Lions go into the weekend down in 14th place in the table, but they are certainly not out of the play-off hunt. They are only six points off the top eight and their last four games are all at home.
Benetton: 15 Leonardo Marin, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Ignacio Brex, 11 Paolo Odogwu, 10 Jacob Umaga, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Riccardo Favretto, 5 Federico Ruzza (captain), 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Subs: 16 Siua Maile, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Giosué Zilocchi, 19 Scott Scrafton, 20 Eli Snyman, 21 Michele Lamaro, 22 Andy Uren, 23 Rhyno Smith.
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Tapiwa Mafura, 13 Rynhardt Jonker, 12 Marius Low, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Juan Schoeman.
Subs: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 SJ Kotze, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Sibabalo Qoma, 21 Nico Steyn, 22 Renzo du Plessis, 23 Kelly Mpeku.
Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the enticing URC showdown between the Lions and Benetton in Johannesburg.
Lions v Benetton, URC, 13:45
