A game played at 100 miles an hour showed the difference in fitness levels. The Lions were much better prepared and in far greater match fit condition than the Bulls yesterday. Only the experience of the Bulls helped them to hang on and win their first game.

Twitter messages from Players

“Well we’ve got the result we wanted-not in the way we wanted though!tough 2nd half but glad with our win-ice has been broken,21 weeks to go!“(Pierre Spies) “Happy with away win. Just made to many mistakes second half “ (Victor Matfield)

Brenden Nel- Supersport

After a solid start where the Bulls showed just why they won the competition for the past two years, the Lions stormed back in the second and were rather unlucky not to steal it at the end as the Bulls faded.

While the champions will head across the Jukskei with the four points in the bag, they will also know they have a lot of questions to answer before heading to Bloemfontein this week, much more so than their opposition.

After being more composed for most of the first half, and showing clinical rugby in building an innings, the Bulls looked shell-shocked in the second half and had to dig deep into their reserves to eventually come up with the win.

The Lions, who found some potion at the break, were a different team in the second half, and surprised their opposition by holding onto the ball, looking dangerous as they attacked from angles and split the Bulls defence on more than one occasion.

In the end experience probably won it for the visitors, as they had enough composure to close out the game in the Lions half in the last few minutes, and ensure they came away with the victory. The Lions showed excellent promise and confirmed they are on an upward curve, but some poor handling, poor options and ultimately a little too much eagerness were their downfall.

The Bulls will thank their stars for the first half, where they deviated a little from their tried and trusted to spread the ball wide with fullback Zane Kirchner looking increasingly dangerous on attack.

The option to take on the Lions out wide worked well, and rattled the young home side. It may, however, have come at a high cost as hooker Gary Botha walked off clutching his shoulder and could be out for a while.

But in the second half, the bounce of the ball favoured the home side more, they played with more confidence and lapped up the ball the Bulls kept on pumping down their throats. The Bulls seemed set to stay back and wait for the Lions’ mistakes, giving them the momentum and extra space they needed to launch the comeback.

Had Elton Jantjies not fluffed several kicks and used wrong options early on, it may have been a different story for the home side, but to his credit he did come back well in the second half.

Rob Houwing- Sport24

Never mind that they lost first-up to the still formidable enough Super Rugby champions … the Lions should move healthily in the right direction this year.

That much was pretty evident as the awakening Johannesburg franchise gave the Bulls more headaches than they could ever have imagined in the second half of a heart-stopping Highveld derby to mark the opening of the 2011 campaign at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday night.

They had to settle for a losing bonus point in a 24-20 defeat, but that in itself was no mean achievement against a wily, unflappable bunch who aren’t the winners for three of the past four years for nothing.

In a nutshell, if the Bulls find the consistency to play as clinically and energetically as they did before halftime, when they commanded a 24-5 lead and a cricket score appeared to beckon, Victor Matfield’s troops will be right in the frame again this year.

Conversely, though, if the Lions quickly manage to bury the buck-in-the-headlamps phenomenon that plagued their own first-half effort and show the balls and aptitude that stamped their incredible fightback against their neighbours, they will not revisit the nightmare of their “nought from 13” performance in the swansong year of the old Super 14.

Last season’s losing finalists, the Stormers, had a first-round bye … which gave them ample time to chew on the fact that John Mitchell’s charges will visit Newlands next Saturday knowing that their dignity was thoroughly restored in a second 40 minutes against the Bulls quite remarkable for its come-from-nowhere dominance.

No doubt a lot of people in Pretoria and environs will be just as perplexed as to why the oomph seemed to desert the Bulls so markedly on Saturday after their flying start; the turnaround was so seismic that the gritty Lions bossed the second period with some 70 percent of the ball and swathes of territorial dominance as well.

The answer may just lie in the possibility that the title-holders were undercooked in terms of genuine “A-team” game-time activity in pre-season while the Lions, by contrast, took part in the Neo Africa Tri-Series against two other quality South African teams and then also tuned up rather smartly against Argentinean outfit Tucuman.

Certainly there was lots of heavy breathing within the Bulls ranks as their tackle count mounted and mounted before Marius Jonker blew an end to proceedings and they were relieved to bank four log points – a decent enough start away from Fortress Loftus, when all is said and done.

Let’s not forget that this year’s competition is far more ultra-marathon than it is 100-yard dash, so the Bulls will digest events at damp Doornfontein in that context.

And although the player-of-the-match award went just a little contentiously to Gurthro Steenkamp, it could so easily have been placed in the hands of Fourie du Preez, that brilliant No 9 general who served notice to the country as a whole in a World Cup year that he is back.

Before the break he was at the forefront of the Bulls’ praiseworthy thrust and use of the width of the park, with his vision and famously long and swift pass quite awesomely apparent, and his cool head in back-pedalling situations also aided the visitors’ cause as the Lions mustered their second wind.

You just sense that he is such an assured “link” in strategic terms, and the scrumhalf is also a master at cajoling referees into believing the opposition are slowing down the ball at the breakdown, partly because so much of what Du Preez does himself is entirely constructive and eminently within the bounds of the laws.

He made his flyhalf Morne Steyn look good again, too: not least in the defensive department, where the Springbok pivot made a couple of truly vital tackles during the cling-on job.

And of course Steyn’s place-kicking was almost as efficient as ever – this was a department where the Lions wunderkind Elton Jantjies blew more cold than hot on the night.

Lions Rugby

A scintillating, sometimes brilliant, second half in which they held the defending champions Bulls scoreless was not good enough to see the Lions home in their first Super Rugby match at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday night. The Bulls won 24-20.

When the score had mounted to 18-0 with the Lions looking hesitant on attack and at times even inept, very few would’ve given the home side a chance against a Bulls side that dominated every facet. They scrummed well and once marched the Lions 12 metres back; they rucked the Lions off the ball and won a number of Lions lineouts with the home side adding to their own demise in this facet with poor throwing.

Add to that a number of injudicious kicks, and the scene was set for a trouncing, with the halftime score 24-5 in favour of the Bulls.

Behind the pack, the backline too often seemed indecisive in that first half. The only thing that had changed from last year’s poor season, it seemed, was the defence that held a rampant Bulls side out.

The game started with the Lions on the attack and looking dangerous in the first few minutes, but after Elton Jantjies’ miss of an easy penalty the Bulls took control and held it throughout the first 40 minutes. As it is, Jantjies kicked only two from five while Steyn had a five from seven success ratio.

Lions centre Waylon Murray, running a lovely angle, pulled five points back 36 minutes into the game to make it 18-5 to the Bulls who had earlier scored though a lovely try by Gerhard van den Heever who showed speed and swerve from 65 metres lout following a poor Lions kick. Zane Kirchner scored the Bulls’ second try following good phase play and with the Lions simply running out of defenders.

In the four minutes after Murray’s late first-half try, Morne Steyn slotted two penalties to make it 24-5.

And then came the Lions’ resurgence. Running with confidence, they stretched the Bulls on a number of occasions. Their pack was more than up to the task and the Lions impressively dominated the possession stakes in the second half. In fact, overall the official possession count was 61% to the Lion s and only 39% to the Bulls pack with their eight Springboks.

A further two tries in the second half gave the Lions a three-try tally against the Bulls’ two to take as a further consolation from the match. The first in the second half was scored by replacement hooker Marin Bezuidenhout after an exciting series of supporting handling by the Lions. This time James Kamana – on for injured Jaco Taute – had run from the back and linked well before the Lions’ ruck play saw the ball go wide. Josh Strauss did brilliantly to take two defenders with him before off-loading to Bezuidenhout.

The second was converted driving play from the Lions that saw No8 Warren Whiteley get the nod from the TMO as the pack went over against a Bulls defence that just couldn’t keep it up following the seemingly never-ending onslaughts from the red-jersey men.

In general: this Lions side will seriously challenge a number of top sides and win a few unlikely matches.

Some Match Stats