Ill-disciplined Lions punished by Stade Francais in Paris

The Lions were made to pay for their lack of discipline as they slumped to a 17-7 defeat against Stade Francais in their round three Challenge Cup tie in Paris on Saturday.

The South African side controlled the first half, but only led 7-0 at the break after a converted try from No 8 Emmanuel Tshituka. But that failure to turn possession into points came back to haunt them after the break as the yellow cards and penalties racked up.

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Stade Français flyhalf Joris Segonds kicked two penalties before being replaced by Arthur Coville, who also landed a couple of penalties, which were supplemented by a try from replacement Laurent Panis.

The Lions took control from the start and Stade Français had a lucky escape in the ninth minute when Gianni Lombard missed a kickable penalty.

However, five minutes later the South Africans took the lead, with Tshituka plunging over wide out from a driving maul and Lombard adding the extras for seven-point lead the break.

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It was a different story in the second half as the hosts survived Alex Arrate’s yellow card and pulled three points back via Segonds’ first penalty in the 47th minute.

Flyhalf Lombard was the first Lions player to be yellow-carded in the 52nd minute and he was swiftly followed into the sin-bin by prop JP Smith two minutes later.

Stade Français duly capitalised with Segonds’ second penalty and they took the lead for the first time with Panis’ try from a driving maul on the hour.

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Segonds missed the conversion, but it didn’t matter, as the Lions infringed again in the 66th minute and Coville punished them.

Two minutes later, the Lions conceded a third yellow card when centre Henco van Wyk was sent off and Coville kicked his second three-pointer to leave the French club level on eight points with the visitors but a place behind in fourth.

The Lions will now travel from Paris to Newport in Wales where they will take on the Dragons on 22 January.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Challenge Cup LIVE scores — Stade Francais vs Lions

STADE FRANCAIS VS LIONS CHALLENGE CUP SCORERS AND TEAMS:

Stade Francais – Try: Laurent Panis. Penalties: Joris Seconds (2), Arthur Colville (2).
Lions – Try: Emmanuel Tshituka. Conversion: Gianni Lombard.

Stade Francais — 15 Kylan Hamdaoui, 14 Nadir Megdoud, 13 Theo Dachary, 12 Alex Arrate, 11 Stephane Ahmed, 10 Joris Segonds, 9 James Hall, 8 Ryan Chapuis (captain), 7 Mathieu Hirigoyen, 6 Julien Ory, 5 Sitaleki Timani, 4 Nathan Huguen, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Lucas Peyresblanques, 1 Moses Alo Emile.
Subs: 16 Laurent Panis, 17 Vasil Kakovin, 18 Paul Alo Emile, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Juan Martin Scelzo, 21 Paolo Odogwu, 22 Arthur Coville, 23 Pienasi Dakuwaqa,

Lions — 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Quan Horn, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Gianni Lombard, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Emile van Heerden, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith.
Subs: 16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Rhynardt Rijnsburger, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Ruhan Straeulis 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Andre Warner, 23 Manuel Rass.