The Lions got the job done against Newcastle in their Challenge Cup match at Emirates Airline Park, 35-13, but nobody in the decent-sized crowd would have gone home with enduring memories of this unattractive encounter.
The Lions were largely ham-fisted as they stuttered over the line with their five-point haul when most had predicted a romp against the bottom-placed team in the English Premiership.
The steady drizzle that greeted the start of the game was a leveler because the Falcons are used to those conditions while the Lions had been in the starting blocks for a fast-paced game on a bone-dry Highveld field, but that did not materialise.
The Falcons indeed started like they were at home and were promising early on as the Lions struggled to find their rhythm. This was the lineup that had rested the previous week while the second-stringers enjoyed an excellent win at Perpignan, and they looked rusty as they clumsily went about the opening quarter.
It took 18 minutes before the Lions found their groove when a lineout was mauled over the line, with hooker PJ Botha twisting over.
Botha’s front-row partner, JP Smith, repeated the medicine ten minutes later, the try a replica of the first and the warning signs were there that the Lions could maul over the line almost at will if given the opportunity.
But Smith then gave away a penalty at the restart and Connon pulled the score back to 14-6.
The Falcons hooker kept throwing the ball in skew and his team could ill afford to gift the Lions forwards quality possession. That meant increasing pressure on the Falcons and when their captain, flank Josh Bainbridge was carded for a foul, and Philip van der Walt soon followed him, the Lions were knocking on the floodgates against a 13-man team.
The latter card was the law gone bonkers because it was the former Cheetahs and Sharks flank that came off decidedly second best in his upright collision with Willem Alberts. Van der Walt would fail his concussion test.
The rain had stopped by the start of the second half and the Lions wanted to speed up the game and use the width of the field to exploit their two-man advantage.
It says plenty about the Lions’ lack of precision that they would not score a point while the Falcons were missing players but the third try did come ten minutes into the half when Emmanuel Tshituka peeled off the back of a lineout and rampaged to the line.
As the game hit the three-quarter mark it was the Falcons who scored the fourth try of the match, a good effort off a tap penalty by Van der Walt’s replacement, Freddie Lockwood, and the visitors were in the fight at 13-21.
The Lions eventually got the bonus-point try when skipper Marius Louw finished off a rare backline attack with just ten minutes to go before Tshituka completed the scoring with his second try.
Point-scorers
Lions 35 — Tries: PJ Botha, JP Smith, Emmanuel Tshituka (2), Marius Louw. Conversions: Sanele Nohamba (5).
Newcastle Falcons 13 — Tries: Freddie Lockwood. Penalties: Brett Connon (2). Conversions: Connon.
IOL Sport