The Emirates Lions capped off an excellent Vodacom Super Rugby tour of Australasia as they narrowly beat the Queensland Reds 18-17 in Brisbane on Friday.
The win gave the Lions their third victory in a four game tour and brings them right back into the title race for the South African conference, as they head home while the other South African franchises still have to complete their tours.
And with the victory, they have emerged a stronger team, and one which will be difficult to beat, not for their attacking prowess, but for the immense defensive displays they showed on the tour.
It took an Elton Jantjies penalty in the 71st minute to get the Lions back into the lead they held for most of the match, and then some exceptional defence to keep the Reds out.
Jantjies' form at flyhalf has been one of the key reasons why the Lions have been successful, as has their never-say-die attitude under the leadership of Warren Whiteley.
On Friday though it was his fellow loose forward Warwick Tecklenburg who delivered the crucial turnover that won the game, with the loose trio doing a mountain of work up front.
To be honest the Reds look like a side playing with little direction and trying to survive on the talent of Tevita Kuridrani, James O'Connor and Quade Cooper.
But with performances like this and others this season, it is tough to see them not scratching around at the bottom of the log at the end of the competition.
Still, to take away from the Lions' performance would be wrong, as they did exactly what they came to do and surprised the home side with their intensity both on attack and defence.
After Cooper had opened the scoring, it was a lovely punch up the middle by Ruan Combrinck that opened the gap for the ball to be sent wide to Harold Vorster. The young midfielder did exceptionally well to plant the ball before being bundled out in the corner.
Elton Jantjies may have missed the conversion, but he put away a penalty shortly before the break to give his side a healthy 8-3 lead at halftime.
The Reds looked better in the second half and started to get ascendancy in the scrums. A moment of madness by Combrinck cost him a yellow when he played Will Genia from an offside position on his own tryline and things were to get worse when from the next scrum the Reds pushed through and Glen Jackson ran to give a penalty try.
While there was no doubt a penalty was warranted, it was strange as there weren't any resets or scrum collapses from that particular scrum, but Jackson made up his mind that a penalty try was warranted, much to the happiness of the home crowd.
It wasn't long afterwards when Samu Kerevi burst over from a move off the lineout and the Reds were in front again.
Then came Tecklenburg's turnover and Jantjies grabbed back the lead in a hurry, needing to punt the ball through after it initially fell over as he prepared for the kick.
The Lions were lucky to keep replacement Chris Feauai-Sautia out as he went over after tiptoeing down the touchline. While it seemed the final pass to him was blatantly forward, assistant referee James Leckie put his flag up for being out in touch. However several replays put this into doubt but it was at least clear that Feauai-Sautia lost the ball as he went over the goalline, with the Lions breathing a sigh of relief.
The Lions closed out the game with some strong defence and will head home knowing they once again hold the key to their own fate in this year's competition.
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