Flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse kicked 11 points but it was not enough to rescue the Lions from a narrow loss against Edinburgh in the Scottish capital on Saturday night.
The visitors fought valiantly against an outfit reinforced with returning Scotland internationals but ultimately succumbed to a 17-16 reverse. This follows the Lions opening the season with a 35-33 loss against the Stormers at Ellis Park.
After the tourists lost winger Edwill van der Merwe to an early yellow card, Edinburgh opened the scoring win the only try of the first half, courtesy of loose forward Luke Crosbie.
Hendrikse replied with two penalties to narrow the margin to just one point at the break, but his Edinburgh counterpart Ben Healy made it two-from-two off the kicking tee when he extended the hosts’ lead to four immediately after the restart with a penalty.
Edinburgh were reduced to 14 men at the end of the third quarter when winger Ross McCann was sent to the naughty chair for a high shot and the Lions immediately took advantage when No 8 Frankie Horn dotted down, Hendrikse adding the extras.
Minutes later, Edinburgh hooker Ewan Ashman lashed back with a converted touchdown and, though Hendrikse cut the deficit to one point with ten minutes to play, the tourists ran out of time as Edinburgh held on for the win.