The Emirates Lions had a disappointing start to their Rainbow Cup SA campaign as they went down 22-9 to the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Three Bulls tries were disallowed thanks to the use of technology and in the end the visitors could only amass three points in the second half, having trailed by 10-6 at half-time.

Wandisile Simelani was the stand-out player for the Lions and was always on the look-out to create something special.

Unfortunately, the Lions lost their fullback Tiaan Swanepoel in the 12th minute and was replaced by EW Viljoen.

At times the Lions’ defence stood up to the mauls of the home-side while their scrum looked more superior with the advent of Carlu Sadie after half-time.

The Tshituka brothers will have a special celebration on the night as they finished off the game as team-mates after a stint of 15 minutes together on the field.

All the Lions points went to the boot of new flyhalf Fred Zeilinga and the Lions backline with rue the fact that they could not cross the goal-line and goes home try-less.