Lions entertain, but rue first-half errors in thrilling defeat to Connacht

The Lions had nothing to lose heading into their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against Connacht in Johannesburg on Saturday, and that much was evident by the error-ridden, yet entertaining performance they dished up. 

AS IT HAPPENED | Lions 30-33 Connacht

The visiting Irishmen were far from clinical themselves, but they did enough to manufacture a thrilling 33-30 win that went from being a dull affair to a blockbuster as the quality improved. 

The Lions, looking to run the ball from everywhere, lacked basic application with wayward passing, poor handling and inaccurate kicking plaguing their first half performance.

They were comfortably the better team by the final whistle, though, with Connacht on the ropes and barely managing to hold onto the advantage they had gained earlier in the match. 

There were many moments of encouragement for the Lions, as there have been all season, and Rabz Maxwane's try towards the end of the first half off a superb Wandisile Simelane line break was one of those. 

That moment gave the Lions a sniff, seeing them go into half-time 14-8 down after Connacht had raced to a 14-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes. 

It didn't help that Ruan Dreyer was yellow-carded for collapsing a maul that led to a penalty try early on, but Connacht would have backed themselves to put the game to bed after manufacturing that early advantage. 

That didn't happen, and the Lions kept throwing everything at their opposition in sometimes quite frantic fashion. 

Connacht, meanwhile, slowed the game down wherever possible, perhaps struggling with the highveld altitude. 

The visitors extended the lead to 17-8 with a Jack Carty penalty shortly after half-time, but Jordan Hendrikse narrowed the gap to 17-11 after a