Coach Ivan van Rooyen says “two massive moments” proved decisive in the Lions’ 33-20 loss to Cardiff on Saturday night.

The Lions led 20-14 early in the second half of their Vodacom URC opener after tries from flank Ruan Venter and No 8 WJ Steenkamp, but Cardiff finished stronger, with replacement hooker Evan Lloyd scoring two maul tries in the closing stages.

“I think it was a game that was in the balance, and the result was probably determined by two or three moments,” Van Rooyen said. “We handled the pressure well and played a good pressure game up until about 15 minutes to go. Then the conditions changed, and we made two crucial errors.

“The one scrum we thought we’d done enough to earn a penalty, but unfortunately we didn’t. Then we made a skill error, they kicked a 50/22. From the penalty that followed, they managed to score from a maul.

“And then obviously Henco [van Wyk] was basically over the tryline but just couldn’t dot the ball down. We felt those were two massive moments that could have turned the momentum.”

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The coach admitted the Lions had struggled with the rain late on.

“They were really tough. Luckily there wasn’t too much wind, but it was wet. With the scoreboard pressure in the last 10 minutes, they just managed to keep us pinned in our half. We also made one or two skill errors that kept us there, and in those conditions they strangled us.”

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The Lions now head to Italy for matches against Zebre and Benetton.

“Injury-wise, I’m not aware of anything at the moment – we’re just about to get on the bus,” said Van Rooyen. “With a full day of travel ahead, we’ll only know by Wednesday if we can get one or two guys back. There are players already on tour with us who might be fit and ready to add to the match-day squad for Sunday’s game.”

Photo: Kian Abdullah/Gallo Images