RUGBY NEWS - The Steval Pumas edged the Xerox Golden Lions 43-36 (halftime 24-17), for a bonus point win, in a fierce Currie Cup encounter, the first of the season for both sides, at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Sunday.

Evenly poised for most of the match, the home side, did, however, enjoy a slender seven-point halftime lead through tries scored by Gerrit Smith, Nardus van der Walt and Francois Kleinhans. Justin van Staden converted all of them and along with his earlier penalty handing the home side the advantage at the break.

Currie Cup Debutant Smith completed his brace in the second half, Van Staden and captain Hennie Skorbinski also got on the scoresheet for a try apiece. Tries for the Lions came via Stokkies Hanekom, Shaun Reynolds, Bradley Thain, Aphiwe Dyantyi and Ashlon Davids.

Despite the lead exchanging hands a few times, it was the resilience and clinical attacking prowess of the Pumas ensuring they optimise good territory and quality possession.

Lions playmaker Reynolds scored 12 of the 17 points for the Lions in the opening stanza. The Lions flyhalf and Hanekom got over the whitewash for the visiting side, Reynolds succeeded with two conversions and a penalty off the tee.

The visitors, did, however, come out firing in the second half, following some great interplay from deep inside their own half saw replacement back Thain go over which Reynolds converted leveling matters, 24-24.

Despite the excitement that these two sides delivered, the handling error count kept on ticking over. This resulted in the scoreboard remaining at 24-24 for nearly 20 minutes. A quick tap-and-go from former Sharks scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer caught the young Lions' defense off-guard and resulted in flyhalf van Staden scoring and converting the Pumas' fourth and bonus point try, 31-24.

The visitors ran hard and ensured the quality of the first phase ball was maintained. This soon paid off when Dyantyi and Davids scored in quick succession, Reynolds converting only one of the two, giving the Lions a five-point lead, 31-36.

That error count would eventually hamper the Johannesburg side's progress as the Pumas scored twice giving them a 43-36 lead going into the last ten minutes.

A penalty attempt from Van Staden went horribly wide, but once again the Lions' errors costing them possession as they decided to run the ball from their tryline and lost the ball in contact.

The score would remain at 43-36 when Referee Stuart Berry blew his whistle for fulltime. This is the first win, in four matches for the year, for Pumas over the Lions after meeting three times in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

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