Ken Borland

Few would have disagreed with Bulls coach Nollis Marais when he gave the Lions full credit for their dazzling 56-20 victory in their SuperRugby derby at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

“The Lions were excellent, they played for the whole 80 minutes and showed us how far behind we are, the score reflects that. The Lions showed why they are a top-class side, they are all excellent rugby players and definite title contenders. We learnt a lot tonight because they are similar to the New Zealand sides,” Marais said.

Although the Lions backs scored some spectacular tries, it was up front where they first got their hooks into the Bulls, with a mighty display from their pack.

“We stole a couple of their lineouts early on, but then we lost two or three and the lineout became messy. The first scrum was a penalty against us and the next one was fed on to the prop’s leg and bounced out, plus we were penalised a lot at the breakdown. We couldn’t get our set-pieces going, so we were just hanging on, we couldn’t play,” Marais said.

The Bulls coach said he was gutted, not so much at the loss – because the Lions are a brilliant side – but at the performance which was nowhere near the levels they reached the previous weekend against the Stormers.

Lions coach Johan Ackermann agreed that the display was one of the best his team have produced this season.

“Obviously we’re very pleased, we played for the whole 80 and it was probably one of the better performances we’ve had. The credit must go to the players because they’ve worked on some of the lessons from the Hurricanes game and worked really hard on the contact area which is so important to our game.

“The Bulls are definitely a good team, big and physical with a strong defence, so I would have taken any win. Credit to the whole pack, who put in a lot of hard work, and the exceptional finishing of the backs,” Ackermann said.