Ken Borland

Control, composure and clinical use of their chances were the main vehicles for success for Munster on Saturday evening as the United Rugby Championship defending champions continued their push for a home playoff with an impressive 33-13 win over the Lions at Ellis Park.

The Lions, who had hammered log-leaders Leinster last weekend in Johannesburg, gave Munster a ferocious working over, especially in the second half. But Graham Rowntree’s team seldom wavered, keeping a firm grip on proceedings by defending brilliantly and managing the game well. Their tactical kicking, and the speed and aerial skills of wings Shane Daly and Calvin Nash, had their opponents under pressure.

The territory stats (62%) favoured the Lions, but they were only able to score one try. They broke the Munster line a few times, but the scramble defence was also full of passion.

Winning ugly is often the mark of champion sides, but two victories in South Africa will satisfy even the most aesthetically-focused supporter. To be fair, Munster were helped by a Lions team that shot themselves in the foot often, wasting numerous opportunities inside the 22 through their own lack of composure.

Munster were 23-6 up at halftime as the Lions added ill-discipline in their own half to their lack of execution inside opposition territory. Three times inside the first 22 minutes the kicking tee was fetched for Jack Crawley and the polished flyhalf succeeded with penalties from 42, 47 and 45 metres to give the visitors a 9-0 lead and a solid start, especially when playing away on the highveld.

Having successfully repelled three promising Lions lineout drives, Munster then scored from their first maul to ram home the stark contrast between the two sides. Crawley’s excellent penalty kick put them in the corner and eighthman Jack O’Donoghue dotted down for the opening try six minutes before the break.

The Lions then suffered a mortal blow when they had a penalty on the halftime hooter but lost the lineout and then Munster won a penalty. Fullback Simon Zebo hacked a loose ball ahead and then chipped it over a sliding defender, and was bearing down on the tryline when he was taken out off the ball by Lions centre Marius Louw.

Referee Craig Evans, in consultation with the TMO, awarded a penalty try and issued Louw a yellow card.

The terrible turn of events for the home side certainly seemed to raise the hackles of the Lions because they came out breathing fire after the break. Halfbacks Sanele Nohamba and Morne van den Berg broke through at times, but the Munster cover defence was always up to the task. Both Crawley and Zebo made important interventions in this regard.

In the 49^th minute, the Lions were not able to cover as well as Munster wing Shane Daly went over in the corner, space having been created by a forward thrust through the middle off a lineout.

The Lions were 6-28 in arrears and threw everything at Munster for most of the remaining half-hour, but were only able to cut the deficit by a converted try, from close range, by replacement hooker PJ Botha.

And they could not prevent Munster having the final say, either, as replacement loose forward Gavin Coombes rounded off a rolling maul.

Even though the Bulls, who Munster saw off last weekend in Pretoria, beat the Ospreys with a bonus point in the earlier game, the title-holders were not going to be denied a return to third place in the standings.

Munster look an extremely difficult team to beat at the moment, such is the precision of their play, their game-management and their commitment in defence.

Scorers

Lions – Try: PJ Botha. Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse. Penalties: Hendrikse (2).

Munster – Tries: Jack O’Donoghue, penalty try, Shane Daly, Gavin Coombes. Conversion: Jack Crowley. Penalties: Crowley (3).

Teams

Lions – Hendrikse (Lombard 70^th), Kriel, Cronje, Louw, Van der Merwe, Nohamba, Van den Berg, Naude (Smith 62^nd), Visagie (Botha 50^th), Dreyer (Ntlabakanye 50^th), Alberts (Nothnagel 52^nd), Delport, Pretorius, Tshituka (Venter 56^th), Horn.

Munster – Zebo (Haley 55^th), Nash, Frisch (Carbery 68^th), O’Brien, Daly, Crowley, Murray (Casey 46^th), Loughman (Wycherley 55^th), Scannell (Clarke 68^th), Archer, Snyman, Beirne, O’Mahony (Ahern 52^nd), Kendellan, O’Donoghue (Coombes 48^th).

The DP World Lions men’s team overtook all their opposition on the last bend and we will now host the CSA 4-Day Series final against Western Province following our impressive victory over the Titans on a sporty Centurion pitch last week.

After the frustration of a couple of draws, our Pride delivered the goods when it really mattered, beating the Titans by five wickets to claim top spot on the log after the last round of league fixtures. The DP World Lions’ red-ball game is now running like a finely-tuned motor, having dominated and being unbeaten in all their four-day matches since losing to the Warriors in Gqeberha in early December.

While the SuperSport Park pitch certainly favoured the bowlers, Lions head coach Russell Domingo was happy with the surface and says he hopes for another result pitch, but one that is fair to the batsmen, at the DP World Wanderers Stadium from Wednesday.

“The guys were fantastic against the Titans on what I thought was a good pitch. I was really pleased with the way we played and now we can take that confidence into the final. We’ve played some really good cricket lately, although we’ve had some flat pitches where we’ve struggled to finish off teams,” Domingo said.

“All I want at home for the final now is a good cricket wicket – one that rewards good batting and if you bowl well then you’ll get wickets. I will always advocate that because I believe the guys need to learn how to play long innings and how to dismiss batsmen on good pitches. We don’t want anything extreme and over five days I have no doubt we’ll get a result.”

With the current bowling unit performing so well, Lutho Sipamla making an impressive return to action last week, and Duanne Olivier and Tshepo Moreki available again after Proteas Test duty in New Zealand, Domingo may well toy with the idea of once again fielding five seamers and spinner Bjorn Fortuin.

The batting unit ought to be confident of putting enough runs on the board, especially with Zubayr Hamza, top of the competition averages, set to return after Test duty and Temba Bavuma also possibly available, depending on his rehabilitation schedule.

“It’s going to be a very tricky selection and we also need to check on the fitness of a couple of guys. But it’s great to have all of those options. I know Temba is very keen to play and Zubayr has been great for us this season,” Domingo said.

“You want all your best players to play in a final, but you also need to stay loyal to the players who have put you there. A lot of guys have played really well to get us into the final.”

A case in point is the top-class century scored by Josh Richards, which gave the DP World Lions a vital lead against the Titans. It was the first time he has been past fifty since the second match of the campaign, in mid-November, but the return to form came at a vital time.

“Josh’s innings was a game-changer, he was the one guy to get a big score in the match. It was very tough against the new ball and he’s had a few things not go for him this season. But he’s a really good opener and he showed how desperate he is to score runs,” Domingo said.

It’s the tenacity and character that Richards and the #PrideOfJozi have shown that will stand them in good stead against the World Sports Betting Western Province team, who are coming off a big win against previous log-leaders the Dolphins.

Bordeaux-Begles may have lost to Gloucester last weekend and may be languishing mid-table in the French Top 14 league, but they are no mugs and Sharks coach Neil Powell knows his team have to improve on their impressive display against Harlequins if they are to win their second Champions Cup match at Stade Chaban-Delmas on Friday night.

Although Powell rated the 39-31 victory last weekend against Quins as the Sharks’ “best performance so far this season”, taking on a French team, who can pack more than half of their side with internationals, at home, is going to require something even better in order to get the victory.

“It was our best performance so far this season, we were fully in control at 32-14, but then the cards made it challenging,” Powell said on Thursday. “We showed amazing character to hold on with 13 men for 10 minutes and for seven minutes with 14 players.

“But we do want to improve. Maybe we could be a bit more physical and dominant in the tackle area, that’s definitely going to be important against Bordeaux.

“We kicked pretty well last weekend, but we have to make sure we stick to our plan in terms of the kicking game, we will have to adapt the plan against Harlequins a bit because Bordeaux kick more long balls than contestables.

“It’s about looking at who the opposition are and the weather forecast, and working out how we want to play. We need to adapt week-to-week, but it’s not about changing the whole game-plan, just doing one or two things a bit differently,” Powell said.

Much of the Sharks’ strategy will once again be about disrupting the opposition set-pieces, and although loosehead Ox Nche is out due to the three-week suspension he received for his red card against Quins, tighthead Thomas du Toit is back after his ban picked up on Springbok duty.

“It’s going to be important that we have a strong scrum against Bordeaux, that could be one area for us to target,” Powell smiled.

“It’s a pity Ox is not available because he adds a lot, but we all believe in Ntuthuko Mchunu and it’s a great opportunity for him.”

If the Sharks do get dominance up front, then the last quarter could see some attacking flair being sparked by none other than World Player of the Year nominee Lukhanyo Am, who will return to play off the bench after knee surgery in early September.

“It’s important to get Luke back on the field and give him a fair bit of time off the bench. He’s a quality player with x-factor who can create opportunities out of nothing.

“He might be a bit rusty, but I am keen to see what sort of form he is in and hopefully he enjoys his 20 minutes or so off the bench,” Powell said.

Sharks – Boeta Chamberlain, Werner Kok, Francois Venter, Ben Tapuai, Makazole Mapimpi, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi, Vincent Tshituka, Siya Kolisi (c), Gerbrandt Grobler, Eben Etzebeth, Thomas du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench: Dan Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Hanro Jacobs, Hyron Andrews, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Lionel Cronje, Lukhanyo Am.

The Bulls could well call Springbok openside flank Marco van Staden back into service against Cardiff on Saturday night as they look to put more defensive pressure on the opposition, but changing the balance of their loose trio could also affect their attacking play, which was so impressive in the first half of last weekend’s match against the Ospreys.

With Nizaam Carr, wearing the No.6 jersey, linking superbly with the backline, the Bulls ran in seven tries. But they also conceded four and assistant coach Pine Pienaar said on Tuesday that they were looking at ways of putting more defensive pressure on Cardiff.

“In the first half against Ospreys, we made a really good start, but in the second half we lost a bit of momentum, we struggled to put pressure on them,” Pienaar said.

“So how we can still build pressure in the game, like we did in the first half, is something we’re really working on, doing it better in the second half, with or without the ball.

“We need to be able to see it out defensively if we’re in our half, create pressure and get the turnover. We’re definitely looking at defensively trying to build more pressure and then using the turnover ball.

“In the first half we defended well, we were good at the breakdown, we got turnover ball and we could attack. We need to get things balanced in terms of defence.

“It’s great to have Marco van Staden back, he’s been training today [Tuesday]. But we must also compliment Nizaam on a good outing, and Cyle Brink is back from injury.

“It’s nice to have these players back when Marcell Coetzee moved on and they made a statement. We’ve got the players to do the job,” Pienaar said.

Cardiff, as they showed in overwhelming the Sharks last weekend, will bring a mighty pack to Loftus Versfeld and Pienaar said the Bulls will have to improve on their showing against Ospreys to maintain their unbeaten record at home this season.

“Cardiff are so experienced, especially up front. They are a quality side with a good set-piece, big carriers and their halfbacks drive the game perfectly. They played a superbly-balanced game against the Sharks.

“Their home ground is a 4G pitch so they are also used to a fast game and they have special individual players. There is a lot of stuff we will have to be better at against such a quality side.

“I think it will be a humdinger and we will have to be spot-on to win,” Pienaar said.