Lions left to rue costly errors after defeat in URC opener against Cardiff

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen felt Saturday night’s 33-20 defeat against Cardiff at the Arms Park in the opening match of the URC season was decided by a few key moments in the closing 15 minutes, and a late downpour that allowed the hosts to take full control of the match.

Cardiff outscored the visitors from Johannesburg by five tries to two to bag a bonus point. The visitors had led 20-14 early in the second half, after No 8 WJ Steenkamp powered over from a scrum, capitalising on a red card for Cardiff centre Ben Thomas.

“I think it was a game that was in the balance. Probably the result was determined by two or three moments,” said Van Rooyen. “I think we handled and played a good pressure game up till about 15 minutes to go, when the conditions changed.

"We made two crucial errors. With the one scrum we thought we did enough to get a penalty but unfortunately we didn’t. We made a skill error, they kicked a 50:22 and we conceded a penalty there in the end.

"Through that sequence they managed to score off the front of the maul. Henco was basically over the try line, but just couldn’t do the ball down and we felt that was two massive moments in the game that could have turned momentum.”

The Lions coach admitted Cardiff’s mastery of the wet conditions made their task more difficult, a situation compounded by further errors from the beaten Currie Cup finalists.

“Conditions obviously ended off really tough. Luckily there wasn’t too much wind but it was wet and because of the scoreboard pressure that last 10 minutes they managed to just keep us there. Again, we made one or two skill errors that kept them in our half and with the conditions they just managed to strangle you there,” Van Rooyen said.

Thankfully, there were no further injury woes for a Lions team that has been hard hit, with the coach hoping to have some players return ahead of next Sunday’s clash against Italian side Zebre in Parma.