Lions march on with mature, hard-fought win in Wales against Dragons

The Lions continued their flawless start to the 2024/25 United Rugby Championship (URC) season, beating Dragons 23-19 at Rodney Parade on Sunday to make it three wins from three.

Where the Johannesburgers were all thrills and enterprise in their 55-21 dismantling of Edinburgh at Ellis Park last weekend, they showed a maturity and game management here to get over the line despite being outscored by three tries to two.

There was, however, still a clear willingness to have a crack from the visitors, especially in the first half, but as the game got tighter against a Dragons side that was impressively clinical for the most part, the Lions started doing what needed to be done rather than go in search of plays that weren’t there.

They were hurt by a yellow card to hooker Franco Marais for a cynical, and rather senseless, infringement at a breakdown that led to Dragons’ second try in the first half, but they recovered to get the job done.

Coach Ivan van Rooyen did bring on Sanele Nohamba at flyhalf for Nico Steyn after just 47 minutes when they were 19-13 down, but the halfback was asked to play a far more conservative, kicking game than one might have expected.

The killer blow came on 51 minutes when loose forward Jarod Cairns capitalised on some soft Dragons tackling to go over for the try that would ultimately separate the sides. 

Scorers:

Dragons 19 (12)

Tries: Harri Keddie, Taine Basham (2)

Conversions: Lloyd Evans (2)

Lions 23 (13)

Tries: Quan Horn, Jarod Cairns

Conversions: Nico Steyn, Sanele Nohamba

Penalties: Steyn (2), Nohamba