The Lions boosted their hopes of making the United Rugby Championship’s end-of-season play-offs and simultaneously dealt a blow to Connacht’s ambitions with a bonus-point 33-21 victory over the Irish province at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The South African side scored five tries to their opponents’ three in Johannesburg and will aim to advance to the last eight knockout stages with home advantage as the competition moves into the final two rounds of regular fixtures.
The defeat brought to an end a run of six URC wins in a row for Connacht.
The Lions took the lead in the fifth minute when wing Angelo Davids had the relatively simple task of dotting down in the corner unchallenged after the hosts had moved the ball quickly through the hands and stretched the Connacht defence.
Centre Henco Van Wyk showed a superb turn of pace to race clear and score soon after the midway point of the half and then Siba Mahashe put the finishing touch to another flowing move by diving over in the corner on the stroke of half-time.
Erich Cronje touched down to complete another clinical build-up soon after the interval but Matthew Devine replied for the visitors when he gathered possession and burst over from close range.
Van Wyk rounded off some more slick ball handling with try number five for his side but Stuart Lancaster’s team finished strongly, albeit too late to have a chance to salvage any points.
After Shayne Bolton’s score was ruled out after consultation with the Television Match Official [TMO] for a knock-on in the build-up, Devine skipped in under the posts for his second try and then Paul Boyle touched down for a score in the dying seconds.
The Lions face testing trips to Leinster and Munster in their final two matches of the regular URC campaign, with Connacht at home to Munster and away to Edinburgh.
Lions: Horn; Davids, Van Wyk, Kriel, Cronje; Smith, Van den Berg; Kotze, Botha, Ntlabakanye; Venter, Landsberg; Mahashe, Hlekani, Horn
Replacements: Brandon, Davids, Lombard, Nothnagel, Qoma, Pretorious, Steyn, Mpeku.
Connacht: Gilbert; West, J Devine, Gavin, Jennings; Carty, Reilly; Dooley, Tierney-Martin, Aungier; Murray, Joyce; Prendergast (capt), Hurley-Langton, Boyle.
Replacements: Victory, Bohan, Barrett, Murray, Jansen, M Devine, SNaughton, Bolton.
