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Cape Town - Lions coach Swys de Bruin was relatively satisfied with his side's performance in a pre-season friendly against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
The men from Johannesburg edged the Durbanites 19-14 in the first game of "Superhero Sunday" with the Stormers later beating the Bulls 33-28 in the main game.
It was a scrappy game with not much rhythm but De Bruin was happy with the outcome.
"I'm just relieved in the sense that there were no injury worries. In these sort of games, you don't want to show too much, and you just desperately hope there won't be any injuries. For a first game of the season, with a lot of guys coming back, I'll give it a pass mark, but not a good pass," De Bruin said afterwards, as quoted by SA Rugbymag.
Lions captain Warren Whiteley said it was a typical pre-season encounter.
"It was a bit stop-start. It felt quite slow, to be honest, and the game just didn't get going. I thought we played well in periods, but didn't capitalise well enough on all the possession and territory we had. Our discipline and turnovers cost us a bit, but we were trying some new combinations."
The Lions, runners-up in the past three Super Rugby editions, will open their 2019 campaign against the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on February 16.
