The Lions needed intervention from on high and when it arrived from an unlikely source with 20 minutes to go, the crowd’s prayers were answered.

The home side was trailing a resourceful and resilient Brumbies team by three points when first the Brumbies’ 2.08m lock Rory Arnold was red carded for a shoulder charge to Elton Jantjies’ chin, before another member of the visitors’ tall timber fraternity, Sam Carter was yellow carded.

If it wasn’t a match changer, it certainly served to extinguish any hopes the Brumbies had of holding on to their slender lead amid a frenetic period of attack by the home team.

Before that however the home team was stuck in third gear.

That the Lions returned home following three successive defeats, and a dark cloud hanging over the head of a member of their coaching staff, were far from ideal.

Indeed, this season they have created the suspicion that they are a team in decline. Six defeats in this campaign before this match meant they were well off the searing pace that helped propel them to league honours last year.

Of course injuries to key players like regular captain and No8 Warren Whiteley, hooker Malcolm Marx, flank Jaco Kriel and scrumhalf Ross Cronjé hardly advanced their cause. 

Against the Brumbies the Lions played like individuals suspected of hiding that expired ‘best before’ label, and they never rid themselves of that tag against a team that was as resilient as they were persistent. The Brumbies may have a lowly log position but they boast one of the best defences in the competition.

Against the competition’s top try scorers that took some doing.

It meant the home side came into this contest as labouring conference leaders and it showed.

They struggled to assert themselves against a team that likes the going on the Highveld.

The Brumbies have bucked uncontrollably at Ellis Park before and their most recent record of two wins from their last three outings here should have served as ample warning of their potency in these parts.

The hosts lacked accuracy in the first half and had to call on the remaining functioning areas of their game to make an impression on the scoreboard.

Their game lacked fluency with handling errors and line-out jitters contributing to their first half frustrations. 

Thankfully for the hosts, they held on to the line-out feeds that mattered. From it their driving maul again chewed up the turf and the Brumbies were left scrambling.

In one such surge the visiting behemoth Arnold was sin binned for collapsing the human caterpillar.

The Lions duly profited with a try from the ensuing penalty when hooker Robbie Coetzee dotted down and they found more reward from the maul when tighthead prop Ruan Dreyer scored second after the halftime siren.

On the occasion of him becoming the first Lions’ player to earn 100 Super Rugby caps, Jantjies delivered a solid shift. So too did lock Lourens Erasmus as the Lions were forced to hang tough. Erasmus was busy, although his energy wasn’t always channelled towards a worthy cause.

Jantjies who came onto the field with his two kids had barely put them down when he had to stretch to reach speeding fullback Tom Banks in the second minute.

The Brumby raced through like a thoroughbred and silenced the crowd in the process.

The Lions established parity but only after they had an effort in the corner by Sylvian Mahuza disallowed.

They did have the benefit of the referee’s advantage and after persistent pressure Henry Speight fell off another tackle as Rohan Janse van Rensburg bulldozed through him.

Tevita Kuridrani also notched up a ton of Super Rugby appearances and the big Wallaby midfielder wore a broad smile after he scored a trademark try in the 17th minute.

The Lions made their numerical advantage count in the final quarter when the impeccable Marnus Schoeman, Shaun Reynolds and Erasmus dotted down. By then the crowd could barely recall what transpired in the first hour.