Brilliant Batho Hlekani earns plaudits as he shines on international debut for Lions

The behemoth was drafted into the starting XV after suspensions and injuries forced coach Ivan van Rooyen's hand. And Hlekani showed up, scored a try, played 80 minutes and scooped the Man of the Match accolade for his industrious efforts in the 42-33 victory.

Lions captain Francke Horn was full of praise for the 20-year-old debutant, who hails from the same township - Zwide - as double World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi. 

"Batho getting the Man of the Match is richly deserved," said Horn in the post-match presser.

"My job as captain and part of the leadership group is just to keep him calm and give him confidence. He might have been nervous and a bit scared of not knowing detail, but I told him just take the ball forward, carry, and I think he did it extremely well.

"And for the other Siba [Mahashe] to come onto the bench, play for 20 minutes, and make a really good impact with tempo in the game, just shows you the quality of our training. If one goes down, the other guy can just fit in and do the job."

Hlekani also earned praise from his coach.

"Everyone knows how good he can carry," said van Rooyen.

"The whole world knows it. In the short time that I have been working with him, he is quiet, humble, and he just wants to work hard and make a difference. It is great that he is a Lion."

Moving onto the match itself, van Rooyen revealed it was actually a difficult week for the franchise with so many players unavailable. But this made victory all the more sweeter.

"Actually, it was a challenging week to be honest, after losing Ruan Venter for four weeks, Kelly Mpeku with a wrist [injury], Asa [Asenathi Ntlabakanye] felt his hamstring this week, Siba [Qoma] would've started and got injured in the warm-up, and Batho, who has only been with us for ten days, had to start," he said.

"Sibabalwe Mahashe, who has never played for or with us, had to be included on the bench.

"That is what makes me proud. Guys that offer solutions and just work hard, similar to [our game] against the Sharks.

"Francke, who stays calm on the field and comes up with solutions. That is where we have grown a lot. I feel in the past when we started slipping, we kept on slipping. We manage to come up with solutions much quicker now."

The Lions face Perpignan in France for their next Challenge Cup tie on Saturday.