Lions brains trust on how they turned tables on Munster: A 'street fight' with 146 tackles

The Lions brains trust was understandably elated after they secured a stunning come-from-behind 23-21 win over Munster at Ellis Park on Saturday.

There were ominous signs when Munster raced to a 14-0 lead in as many minutes. The visitors from Ireland were also 21-10 ahead at half-time and kept that lead right up to the 66th minute.

But the Lions had already started to claw their way back into the contest with terrific defending, with Munster appearing agitated and tired after failing to get any reward for concerted periods of attack.

According to post-game statistics, the Lions made a staggering 146 tackles and missed only six, for an impressive 96% tackle success rate.

In contrast, Munster made only 89 tackles and missed 16 (85%).

Lions skipper Burger Odendaal said afterwards their staunch defence at the start of the second half proved vital.

"It think it was when we were defending for like 15 minutes in our 22. I don't know how many phases it was, but I felt it was massive for us. They came with onslaught after onslaught and our defence stuck - we kept our line," he told reporters.

"They made two metres on one carry and then we pegged them back again. After that phase you could actually see that they were down on their knees... man down. We had a call that we wanted to lift the tempo again, and [even though] we didn't really lift the tempo, we just tried to keep it there. I felt that was a big turning point for us."

Flanker Vincent Tshituka, whose industrious effort saw him claim the player-of-the-match accolade, was the Lions' top defender with 16 tackles.

Odendaal said they worked hard on their defence in recent times.

"It was something of a roller coaster for our defence. When we went overseas we actually defended quite