The Cheetahs and Lions shared the Currie Cup spoils in a 12-try shootout in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

With the 44-44 result, both teams, who currently lie in seventh and sixth on the Currie Cup table, suffered a setback in their bid to make the tournament playoffs, with four rounds left to play.

Match flow: The Cheetahs got off to a flying start as they opened up a 15-0 lead in the first 12 minutes through tries from Ruan Pienaar and David Brits.

However, in a first half featuring a total of 40 points, the Lions fired back with their own salvo of tries, before Craig Barry’s score allowed the Cheetahs to take a slim lead into the break.

The second half was a defence coach’s nightmare, as a total of 48 points were scored, with both teams seeming able to break the line at will given the poor tackling and defensive organisation.

Rabz Maxwane caused the Cheetahs no end of problems as he scored a second try and set up Burger Odendaal for another.

The Cheetahs gave themselves hope of edging a victory when Andisa Ntsila scored from a driving maul, as the lead changed for the 10th time in the match, but Jordan Hendrickse kicked a late penalty to level the scores at 44-44.