Lions brush aside Griquas
2007-09-29 17:11
Kimberley - The Lions have brushed aside Griquas in their Currie Cup match in Kimberley on Saturday.
The Lions won 28-0 after leading 11-0 at half-time.
Kimberley - The Lions have brushed aside Griquas in their Currie Cup match in Kimberley on Saturday.
The Lions won 28-0 after leading 11-0 at half-time.
Griquas really struggled to get any ball and suffered the ignominy of finishing pointless at home as their penultimate match of the season was one-way traffic for the vast majority of the time.
The home side had practically no ball in the opening 20 minutes and the Lions' half-time lead was a totally false reflection of how dominant they had been.
Outside centre Jaco Pretorius looked to have become the opening try-scorer when he dotted down in the second minute, but the TMO ruled this was not so as Griquas captain Gareth Krause's unbelievable tackle had managed to get his hand under the ball as Pretorius dived over the line.
Nothing much else would go right for Griquas thereafter, however. They were all at sea in the lineouts and had nothing to match the attacking verve of the Lions backs, with fullback Louis Ludik, Pretorius and inside centre Walter Venter, who is new to this level of rugby, standing out.
The Lions eventually posted their first points in the 20th minute as Ludik slipped through a couple of nothing tackles on the right, the ball was recycled and sent left, wing Ryno Benjamin went through a gap to within five metres of the line and offloaded beautifully in the tackle to hooker Willie Wepener, who was impossible to stop as he plunged over the line.
Flyhalf Louis Strydom sliced the conversion wide, but he got everything together in his kicking when he added a penalty and a superb drop goal, practically from the halfway line, to the score before halftime.
Griquas then had to play into a slight wind in the second half and in no time at all they were 14-0 down as fullback Zane Kirchner ran a kick back into the middle of the Lions defence and conceded a penalty which Strydom converted.
The middle of the second half certainly belonged to Griquas and they should have scored in the 63rd minute when hooker Hans van Dyk burst through the Lions pack from a slick tap-penalty move but lost the ball just short of the tryline.
Griquas spent the next five minutes still on attack, their only period of sustained pressure in the match, but nothing came of it and the Lions finished with a late charge that saw them narrowly miss out on a bonus point.
Wing Jannie Boshoff picked up a loose ball in the Griquas backline, hacked ahead, and Venter had the power and speed to gather the ball and beat off the defence for the Lions' second try.
Four minutes later, replacement Earl Rose's chip over the defence found no-one at home and Benjamin went over for the try unopposed, and scrumhalf Jano Vermaak lost the ball forward over the tryline as the Lions scrambled for the fourth try after the hooter.
The Lions are now in third place on the log, three points ahead of the Bulls, but that could all change depending on how the northern Gautengers do against Boland in Wellington later on Saturday afternoon.
Griquas' defeat means they are now out of the permutations for the semi-finals.
Scorers:
Lions:
Tries: Willie Wepener, Walter Venter, Ryno Benjamin
Conversions: Louis Strydom, Earl Rose
Penalties: Strydom (2)
Drop goal: Strydom.