LIONS 33
CHIEFS 27
KEY POINTS:
A lack of depth fatally undermined the Chiefs as their season disintegrated with an ugly defeat to the bottom-placed Lions in Johannesburg yesterday.
Two Chiefs tries in the final two minutes meant the scoreline didn't reflect the one-sided nature of a match they never threatened to win despite being desperate to do so.
The second-half sending off of prop Ben May for a head-stomp that also saw a legitimate Lelia Masaga try chalked off was the turning point. But the seeds of the Chiefs defeat had been sown much earlier, when hooker Tom Willis pulled out before kick off with a rib injury and then, midway through the first half, when key ball carriers Sione Lauaki and Sitiveni Sivivatu hobbled off in the space of 60 seconds.
With leading lights Brendon Leonard, Richard Kahui and Simms Davison already on the injured list, the Chiefs simply lacked the quality to produce the result they needed to stay in the semifinals race.
"That is certainly the evidence that is in front of us right now," coach Ian Foster said. "We have fallen short in a couple of areas. We are bitterly disappointed. We didn't deal very well with the pressure. We made too many mistakes. We gave a team that was lacking in confidence a lot of confidence. They didn't have to do a lot to construct tries against us."
The defeat dropped the Chiefs to seventh and leaves them needing a miracle run of upsets in this weekend's final round to make the semifinals. Foster wasn't ready to wave the white flag but the reality is a campaign that promised so much just two weeks ago is now dead in the water.
"We are hurting but we are pretty proud," the coach said. "We've still got one more game and we'll go for it but obviously right now it is a frustrating period."
Things probably won't get much better this week against a Sharks team that will be desperate for a five-point victory to boost there own playoff aspirations.
Playmaker Stephen Donald (neck) and Sivivatu (ankle) were carted off to hospital shortly after the match, while Lauaki appears to have pulled a hamstring, an injury that would almost certainly rule him out of the Sharks match.
Another unlikely to feature in Durban is May, who will likely be suspended for his stomp on Joe van Niekerk's face.
Television replays were far from conclusive but May's boot did appear to travel down and well-placed touch judge Deon van Blommestein was adamant it was a deliberate act of foul play. Van Niekerk's bloodied face also told its own story.
May's 64th-minute foul ruled out a try to Masaga with the Chiefs trailing 27-13 and two penalties to fullback Earl Rose then ensured victory for the Lions who recorded only their second victory of the season.
The Chiefs, who had scored in the first half through Aled de Malmanche but conceded tries to Chris Jonck and Willem Alberts to trail by four at the break, scored late through Masaga and Mils Muliaina to claim a close-loss bonus point.
Two points in two weeks, however, has been well short of the required return to keep pace with the playoff race and the Chiefs can now turn their attentions to performing a post-mortem on yet another campaign that can be filed in the "close but no cigar" drawer.
