Doornfontein's People
The crowd that turned Ellis Park into the hardest ground in South African rugby to visit.
336 points scored in Johannesburg. Two Scottish sides beaten by a combined 108 points. Those numbers belong partly to a coaching group and a squad, and partly to sixty-two and a half thousand seats in Doornfontein.
WHAT A LIONS CROWD IS. Johannesburg is a city of arrivals — people who came from somewhere else for work and stayed. The supporter base reflects that. It is not an inherited, generational crowd in the way some unions can claim. It is a chosen one, and chosen support is louder.
THE ALTITUDE ADVANTAGE IS ALSO A CROWD ADVANTAGE. Visiting sides arrive knowing the last twenty minutes will be harder than they are used to. A ground that knows it too, and gets loud at precisely the moment the opposition's legs go, converts a physiological edge into a psychological one.
THE SEASON THEY GOT. A Shield sealed at home against the Stormers. Glasgow Warriors, the eventual log leaders, beaten by 42 points. Edinburgh by 37. Five straight home wins to close the league campaign, and 216 points in them.
AND THE ONE THEY DID NOT. The Bulls, 52-17, on 31 January. Every crowd earns one of those a season.
WHAT COMES NEXT. Toulouse at Ellis Park on 12 December 2026, three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Exeter Chiefs on 16 January. Antoine Dupont's club, in Doornfontein, in a Champions Cup pool match. The Lions supporter base has waited a long time for a fixture list like this one.
It is not an inherited crowd. It is a chosen one, and chosen support is louder.
- 01Ellis Park during the Shield-sealing win over the Stormers.
- 0262,567 seats in Doornfontein.