Lions Legends defeated Classic Springboks 7-5 in a tightly contested World Rugby Classic knockout encounter played on a soggy National Sports Centre on Saturday night.

The win saw the Lions book their spot in the Classic semi-finals where they will clash with Classic Pumas, after the Argentinians won 44-0 over Italian Classic XV in an earlier match.

South Africa came into the tournament in search of their seventh title, having been crowned champions in 2016, but will now have to contend with a place in the Plate semi-finals.

Both teams produced some scintillating rugby on a wet pitch, with just two points separating the sides at the end of the 60 minutes of play as a converted try ultimately proved pivotal for the Lions.

The Lions started off brightly, putting their opponents under immense pressure, and this resulted in Springboks flanker Ethienne Reynecke being shown a yellow card for an infringement in the 14th minute. Despite being a man down, the South Africans managed to put in some big hits to keep their opponents at bay.

Rhys Jones had a chance to put the Lions ahead with a penalty from outside the South African 22-metre line, but his effort went wide off the posts.

While the Springboks were still a man down, Stephan Andrews finished off what he had started with a brilliant try for the Lions in the left corner. Jones booted in the conversion, but could not find the target with a penalty goal attempt from the halfway line for his side to lead 7-0 heading into the break.

Morgan Newman scored the only points of the second half when he sprinted down the left wing to plant the ball over the line for the Springboks, but Morne Steyn was not successful with his kick that would have made it 7-7.

Discipline continued to be the biggest undoing for the South Africans, with prop Albertus Buckle sent to the sin-bin towards the end of the match.

Jones went for posts one more time just before the end, on this occasion from close range, only for his kicking boots to let him down, not that it mattered as his team held on for victory.

James Shanahan, the Lions captain praised the resilience displayed by his side.

“I am not really happy, we started really well first half and controlled the field possession, didn't get our chances,’’ Shanahan said.

“Second half it was always about defence. I’m just happy how resilient we were, physically it was a really tough game, you know what the South Africans are about.

“I’m really happy we managed to hold on there because last year we lost two games by a score, so it’s nice to hold on to that win. I am really proud of the boys, we gelled pretty quickly, we know we've got a tough game against Argentina on Tuesday night.

“I watched 15 minutes of the game before and I thought Argentina were very good, so looking forward to that test. We picked up a few injuries, hopefully we've got enough boys to fine up on Tuesday.

“Argentina looked like the best team so if we can get through and beat them, we have every opportunity. France and Ireland game is going to be an absolute stunner.

“This year the level of the tournament has gone up, the standard and the skill is outstanding, it’s really tough, any one of the four teams has got an opportunity to win.”

Butch James, the Classic Springboks pointed at the team’s lack of discipline as the main reason for the loss. The South Africans will now play the Italians in the Plate semi-final on Tuesday.

“It was a great game from both teams their effort was outstanding,’’ the 2007 Rugby World Cup winner said.

“Obviously it was tough conditions, it was quite windy, bit of a wet ball as well from the rain we had earlier.

“All in all I thought it was a great contest and we just came up short. It was disappointing, our discipline let us down big time, the penalty count was well in our favour, and we also had two yellow cards.

“I think that was maybe the difference between the two teams, they were very disciplined, our guys were ill-disciplined.

“We wanted to keep our defence tight as well as our attack, we knew the conditions would be tough to move to move the ball around.

“We wanted to play the territory game, we’ve got a brilliant fly half so we wanted to play in their half. It was a tough game, we battled at line-outs, we didn't get our line-out ball.

“I’m proud of the guys, their effort was really outstanding, that’s all we asked from them.

“There’s not to many easy games here, we’ll let the boys go enjoy themselves, and then we’ll wait for Tuesday. It will be another tough game [against Italy], they’ll be looking forward to it, the guys are a little bit disappointed so they will try get a victory there.”

In the early kick-off, it was a one-sided affair between Argentina and Italy. The Pumas raced to a 25-0 half-time lead and added a further 19 points in the second half to seal a comprehensive victory.

Seven tries were scored by the Classic Pumas with Federico Castilla, Mauro Comuzzi, Martin Nunez, Tomas Morixe, and Franco Fasano all crossing the whitewash. Gabriel Ascarte added three conversions and added penalty for a nine-point haul on the night.

The action continues on Monday where two matches are lined up.

USA Classic Eagles and Rugby Canada, the two beaten teams on the opening night square off in the Plate semi-final.

That match will be followed by a Classic last four battle between the defending champions Classic France and Classic Ireland, in what promises to be a nail-biting encounter.