Marin brace sinks Lions in final quarter

Two late tries by midfielder Leonardo Marin powered Benetton to come from behind and break the Lions hearts with a 26-18 victory at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions lost winger Kelly Mpeku to a yellow card for a deliberate knockdown while 18-11 up and while Benetton’s two tries cannot be directly attributed to the yellow, it certainly swung the momentum of the game.

Benetton won the Vodacom United Rugby Championship game between the two sides earlier this year quite easily but had a lot more trouble getting the W in Johannesburg and the Lions will feel unfortunate for not getting over the line.

Mpeku scored a try and was superb otherwise, and was a candidate for man of the match before the yellow but the way the Italian side came back in those 20 minutes must be applauded.

The Lions will kick themselves for not capitalising on their early dominance and not planting the knockout blow when they were 10 points up.

Flanker Manuel Zuliani was exceptionally good on the ground and disrupted the Lions momentum exceptionally well during the game, earning himself a well deserved man of the match award.

Marin’s first was a simple powerful run where he popped the ball up for So’otala Fa’aso’o who powered through a tackle and then popped the ball up for Marin to go straight through and score untouched.

A few minutes later Marin poppe