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Lions in underwhelming win over Royal XV

By
SETANTA SPORTS
Published Saturday, May 30, 2009, 12:51 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:37 PM


The British and Irish Lions have kicked off their tour of South Africa with an underwhelming 37-25 win over the Royal XV at The Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng.

The home side put it up to the tourists for the majority of the game with few of Ian McGeechan’s men in truth doing themselves too many favours in terms of securing a place for the main Tests against South Africa.

First-half tries from Wilhelm Koch and Rayno Barnes had the Royal XV in a great position before Tommy Bowe pulled one back. Bees Roux then added a third for the South Africans against the run of play but star Lion Lee Byrne, replacement Alun-Jones and Ronan O’Gara all scored late touchdowns to sneak a win for the British and Irish contingent.

As they gear up for their three Tests against world champions South Africa, The Lions will not have been encouraged by a shaky start from late call-up Mike Blair. That looked to have been put to bed when an easy penalty from in front of the posts allowed O’Gara to split them, but Naas Olivier quickly made it 3-3 as the home side’s first attack led to The Lions conceding a penalty.

The same player then tried to catch The Lions out with a snap effort at a drop goal, but it dropped short, however he was soon given another opportunity to try and split the posts once more.

That is because Royal XV captain Koch profited from a mistake from Keith Earls, and the failure of Andrew Sheridan to stop him, to just about get over the line despite a horde of Lions pressure. Olivier then kicked the conversion over before adding three further points as more visitor errors allowed him another free penalty.

McGeechan’s men were then stunned by a second Royal XV try when they were raided at the maul, Barnes escaping with the ball and crossing the line unchallenged, though this time Olivier was just off target with his kick for more.

The Lions looked to be offering little for the reminder of the half. Blair did make one fine block but allowed the ball to run out of play, while O’Gara kept aiming for the corners with his penalties, even when the three points were on.

However, they managed to almost half the deficit just before the break through Bowe. The tourists kept an attack going long enough for Blair to sweep the ball to O’Gara and he fed his compatriot Bowe, who ran through and ran over. O’Gara kicked over the extras to leave the Lions 18-10 adrift at the interval.

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Lions in underwhelming win over Royal XV | Irish Rugby | IrishCentral


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