Thirteen Thousand Nine Hundred Metres
The Lions kicked 486 times from hand and gained nearly fourteen thousand metres doing it. What they did not do was kick for goal very often.
OFF THE TEE. Penalties 21 from 25 — 84 per cent. Conversions 52 from 75 — 69 per cent. Drop goals 0 from 0.
TWENTY-FIVE PENALTY ATTEMPTS IN A SEASON IS A LOW NUMBER. Most URC sides attempt considerably more. It tells you the Lions took the corner rather than the three points, which is consistent with a side that scored 75 tries and took 12 bonus points. It is also why 473 points conceded left them seventh: a team that declines kickable penalties needs its tries to arrive, and away from Ellis Park they did not always.
THE CONVERSION RATE. Fifty-two from seventy-five is 69 per cent. Across 75 tries, that is roughly eight conversions missed against a competition-standard rate. Sixteen points, which is more than the margin in several matches the Lions lost.
FROM HAND. 486 kicks, 13,911 metres — an average of just under 29 metres a kick. 84 kicks retained, and 6 tries scored directly from kicks.
EIGHTY-FOUR RETAINED FROM 486. Around 17 per cent. The contestable kicking game was not a major weapon in 2025/26, and with Quan Horn and Richard Kriel — at 194 centimetres — in the back three, that is a capability the squad has without having fully used it.
WHAT IS MISSING FROM THIS PAGE. Territory percentage and 50:22s are not published in the URC's club export. If the club's analysts hold them, this page gets a second panel.
Twenty-five penalty attempts all season. The Lions took the corner.
- 0121 from 25 off the tee.
- 02Smith kicks a conversion 28/3/2026.
- 03Chris Smith kicks 25/4/2026.