The Lions moved to the brink of winning the Vodacom URC South African Shield with a blend of tactical intelligence and heroism that earned them a thoroughly deserved 24-10 win over the DHL Stormers at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.
The four points the Lions earned for their win, coupled with the five they picked up last week against the Hollywoodbets Sharks, means the Lions are three points clear at the top of the local Shield, with their nearest challengers, the Sharks, needing to win the late game at Loftus to deny them the trophy they will win for being the best SA team in the derby phase.
If the Bulls win it will end the Sharks’ challenge for the secondary trophy they won last year and it will effectively clinch the Lions the trophy as the Bulls are 12 points behind as we write - meaning that they can’t overtake the Lions.
Not that the Lions will necessarily be thinking too much about the Shield given that they are now comfortably ensconced in the URC top eight and are in fact just three points now behind the Stormers, who for a long time were the unbeaten log leaders but now are looking distinctly like a mid-table team, if even that.
They were aiming for top eight but suddenly the top four now looks possible for the Johannesburg based team.
𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 | Fidelity SecureDrive Lions 24 – 10 DHL Stormers
— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) February 28, 2026
Another classic South African rivalry.
@Vodacom #URC | #OriginRound |#LIOvSTO | #ForOurCity | #LionsPride pic.twitter.com/0CeVEVv1Bg
TACTICAL SUPERIORITY POWERED LIONS’ EARLY LEAD
The Lions won because they did what the Sharks did to the Stormers a couple of weeks ago by winning the aerial battle early on, with man of the match Morne van den Bergh instrumental in ensuring the home team made better use of their chances to take a 14-0 lead thanks to the Lions exploiting Stormers back field errors that led to two tries.
And then later in the game the Lions were incredibly brave with the way they withstood the Stormers’ second-half onslaught, a period where the Cape side dominated territory and possession and forced their opponents to make almost four times as many tackles as they did.
On top of that, the Lions were down to 13 men for most of the last 10 minutes due to two yellow cards, one upgraded to a red.
The Stormers were on at least three occasions held up by the Lions over their own tryline.
But as good and as passionate and determined as the Lions were, so the Stormers were poor, with a lamentable error rate contributing to their inability to convert their possession and territory dominance.
They were so assured up until the beginning of December, but since then, and particularly since Christmas, they have become the Kings of Error in South African rugby and also wouldn’t be winning any prizes for rugby intelligence.
Not for the first time in a sequence that has now seen them lose four games in their last five, if you factor in the Champions Cup humiliation at the hands of the Harlequins in early January, the Stormers were punished for trying to run ball from their own half when players were isolated by the opposition kicks.
It led to the Chris Smith penalty that stabilised the Lions just after the Stormers had scored their first and ultimately only try to skipper on the day JD Schickerling, after one to Marcel Theunissen had been chalked off because Evan Roos was adjudged to be set up in an offside position at the lineout drive in the 55th minute.
Dylan Maart went back to field a kick, tried to run it from in his own half and was penalised when he went into contact.
Late in the first half it was Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu who was guilty of a similar error and he also failed to find touch with a penalty as the Stormers were pressing for the points that would have brought them back into the game shortly before halftime.
Instead it was the Lions who had the chance to score the last points of the half, but Chris Smith, who has been so pinpoint accurate with his place kicking in recent games, produced an inexplicable miss from a kickable position.
HOSTS WON THE AERIAL CONTEST AGAIN
That looked like it might be a lucky break for the Stormers, who had trailed from the 21st minute, which was when their former wing Angelo Davids won a aerial duel and a good offload gave the pacy flanker Siba Mahahle the space he needed to manoeuvre in as he ran 30 metres to complete the score.
Sibabalwe Mahashe keeps on delivering for the Lions 🦁🔥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 28, 2026
He gets his second try in two matches 🏉
Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/amjFUW1nyh
Earlier Davids had looked away as the Lions exploited early dysfunction in the Stormers’ defensive system but was hauled on by desperate scramble defence, while Feinberg-Mngomezulu pushed a monster penalty attempt from all of 60 metre wide before he later made a complete hash of an attempted drop-goal.
The Lions’ second try was set up by a kick from Van den Bergh, with wing Kelly Mpeku winning the race to the ball and a deflection finding its way into the hands of centre Henco van Wyk who scored between the posts to make it 14-0.
A Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty drew the Stormers back to within 11 points shortly after halftime only for the Stormers to become passive with their defence and replacement centre Erich Cronje featured twice in the attack, the second his dive for the Lions’ third try and a 21-3 lead after 45 minutes.
The momentum of the game had clearly swung by then with the Stormers becoming the stronger team, but it was too much ground to make up and the Stormers didn’t show the kind of composure that they did when coming from behind to score a famous victory over Munster in Limerick earlier in their campaign.
That was in fact in October, but for Stormers supporters it must feel years ago now.
Lions 24 - Tries: Siba Mahashe, Henco van Wyk and Erich Cronje; Conversions: Chris Smith 3; Penalty: Chris Smith.
DHL Stormers 10 - Try: JD Schickerling; Conversion: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu; Penalty: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.