The Lions travelled to Potchefstroom where they were up against a tough Leopards side, and the men from Johannesburg had to work very hard for a 24-14 win, outscoring their opponents by four tries to two.

The full-house of log points meant the Lions are on a perfect 10 at the top of the standings after their opening two matches.

In Cape Town, DHL WP had to fight back against the Vodacom Bulls, with two late tries seeing the hosts claim a dramatic 30-29 at City Park.

Down to 14 men and trailing by 13 points with five minutes to go in the match, DHL WP dug deep to score two converted tries to make it back-to-back victories to start their season.

The visitors outscored their hosts by five tries to three, but unfortunately they could only convert two of these, which ended up very costly. On the contrary, Junior Springbok flyhalf Sacha Mngomezulu added two conversions (their third try was a penalty try) and three penalty goals to keep his side in the game.

And Toyota Free State were too strong for Eastern Province in the third match on Saturday, with the men from Bloemfontein claiming at 63-13 win in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The Free Staters scored nine tries, with loosehead prop Jan-Hendrik Bessinger crashing over for a hat-trick, while Juan Dee Olivier (scrumhalf) and Juan Smith (flyhalf) converted all nine five-pointers, apart from scoring two tries each.

The Lions (10 points) lead the standings after two rounds, followed by DHL WP (eight), the Vodacom Bulls (seven), and Toyota Free State (five from one match), while the Cell C Sharks (one match), and Leopards are on one log point, with Eastern Province yet to open their account this year.

Next weekend, the Lions host DHL WP in a top-of-the-table clash at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg (Friday, 13h00), the Leopards travel to Bloemfontein to take on Toyota Free State at Toyota Stadium (Saturday, 13h00), and the Vodacom Bulls take on the Cell C Sharks at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria (Saturday, 14h30). EP have a bye.