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Lions rollick to third big win as Hendrikse sees red
The history books will reflect the British and Irish Lions scored the third successive big win of their tour when they hammered the Cell C Sharks 71-31 at Loftus on Saturday night, but those who read the fine-print will find that there was much more to the story than the one-sided result suggests.
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The fact of the matter was that this was building to be an interesting game, certainly the most competitive of the tour by some distance so far. The Sharks scored four first-half tries to hold the Lions to 26-26 at the break, and they had enough of the game to be in the lead.
Gone was the rabbit in the headlight effect that some of the players in the first game on Wednesday in Johannesburg displayed, with the Sharks this time displaying more confidence and spending much of the first half in the Lions’ faces.
Although they were losing the territory battle, they were winning enough possession and Dylan Richardson was particularly impressive as the Sharks troubled the Lions at the breakdown.
The Sharks started the second half fairly energetically too but it only lasted seven minutes. For it was then, the 48th minute of the game, that the contest was effectively ended when Sharks scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse overdid the testosterone and was picked up by the referees thrusting his elbow into the back of a prone Lions player's neck.
MOMENT OF STUPIDITY
It was a moment of stupidity from Hendrikse and it was definitely an incident that merited referee Wayne Barnes showing the Sharks No 9 a red card, but it was such a pity that it left a question hanging in the air.
Most would probably agree that the pace and unrelenting intensity with which the Lions play would probably have taken a toll on the Sharks, thus preventing them from doing what the 1990 Natal team, the first-ever from KZN to win the Currie Cup, did at the Pretoria venue by making history.
However, they would surely have been far more competitive had Hendrikse not been sent off. Playing against the Lions was a massive challenge as it was, to play against them with 14 men for over half an hour was simply asking too much and it wasn’t surprising that the floodgates quickly opened thereafter.
The Lions ended up scoring 11 tries as they rollicked to beyond the half-century mark for the third time in three games and they will feel confident both individually and collectively as there are few players and combinations that have failed to deliver.
However, their captain Jamie George readily admitted in the television interview immediately after the game that the Springboks, who would have been watching in their hotel rooms as they continue their Covid driven isolation, might have seen some opportunities.
That was particularly so in the first half and Lions coach Warren Gatland should be concerned at the fact that the Sharks were able to score four tries and easily cut his team’s defence and were clinical at pouncing on mistakes and converting them into points.
MORE COMPOSED AND LESS TIMID SHARKS TEAM
That this was a more composed and less timid Sharks team than the one we saw on Wednesday was evident from the first minutes, and the first Lions try, which was scored by centre Chris Harris, came against the run of play.
The Sharks immediately hit back when good work from Hendrikse, who really was excellent before he blotted his performance with his indiscipline, and centre Werner Kok put fullback Anthony Volmink away down the left flank for the first Sharks try.
The Lions haven’t been led yet on this tour so there was a significant moment a few minutes later when flyhalf Lionel Cronje, who looked far more composed than Curwin Bosch did in general play on Wednesday, put through a great kick that Thaakir Abrahams chased down for the second try and a 12-7 lead after 14 minutes.
What the Sharks got wrong in the first half was that most times they scored they made a mess of fielding the kick-off and let the Lions back in. The Lions, even in that period when the Sharks were fronting so impressively, somehow always managed to fragment the Sharks defence once they took the ball through the phases.
The Lions didn’t have to wait long for their skipper George to cancel out the Sharks’ advantage and it was 12-12 after 21 minutes. The Lions looked to be slipping into control and were building on attack, only for Hendrikse to intercept and score on the opposite side of the field to reclaim the lead after 24 minutes.
But the Sharks’ concentration lapsed again when the game was restarted and this time it was wing Duhan van der Merwe who went over after a move going left off a loose scrum where the Sharks will feel their defence was at fault.
LIONS MISTAKES WERE PUNISHED
This was a game, or a half at least, where the Lions’ mistakes were punished, and Abrahams did well to pick up a loose ball and pass inside to Volmink for the fullback’s second try and a 26-19 lead. It looked like the Sharks might even go to halftime in the lead but once again they were found wanting when the Lions managed to take the ball beyond a few phases and this time it was Tadgh Beirne who rounded off.
The Lions turned on the pressure and their intensity was unrelenting in the second half as they ran in seven tries to just one in response from the Sharks, but it was always going to be that way once the Sharks were down to 14 men.
SCORES
British and Irish Lions 71 - Tries: Chris Harris, Jamie George 2, Duhan van der Merwe, Tadhg Beirne 2, Jack Conan, Elliot Daly, Anthony Watson 2, Tom Curry ; Conversions: Dan Biggar 8.
Cell C Sharks 31 - Tries: Anthony Volmink 2, Thaakir Abrahams, Jaden Hendrikse and Werner Kok; Conversions: Lionel Cronje 3.
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