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Lions edge past Griquas

Saturday 19th July 2008

Two try hero: Louis Ludik

The Lions continued their march to the top end of the Currie Cup table on Saturday by edging out the Griquas 36-32 in an 11-try thriller in Kimberley.

Down 24-5 at half time, the home side fought back with five second-half tries only to fall short of victory due to a poor display from the kicking tee.

Between them fly-half Conrad Barnard and full-back Riaan Viljoen missed five kicks at posts, costing their side a valuable win.

For the Lions wing Louis Ludik and hooker Willie Wepener contributed two tries each while full-back Earl Rose weighed in with 11 points from four conversions and a penalty .

Winning on the hard turf in Kimberly is never easy for a visiting team and the Griquas started the game full of the confidence gained from their shock victory over Western Province last weekend.

They opened the scoring when scrum-half Sarel Pretorius scored in the first minute. Pretorius collected a loose ball on the Lions 22, stepped through the Lions defence before sprinting across the field to score in the corner.

The Lions however did not allow themselves to be rattled and worked their way to the Griquas line through some quality phase play. The visitors got the ball out wide to Ludik and took the lead when Rose converted the wingers first try after eight minutes.

Ludik doubled his tally after seventeen minutes after a period of sustained pressure from the visitors. Hooker Willie Wepener further extended the lead with a 20th minute try as the Lions cashed in on their dominant in terms of territory and possession.

The Griquas fought their way back into the game before the stroke of half time but were unable to turn possession into points as Rose added three more to the Lions total with a penalty in the 33rd minute.

The home side turned the table on their visitors in the second half though as they scored tries through wings Egon Seconds and MJ Mentz, lock Wayne van Heerden, replacement full-back Bjorn Basson and replacement flank Rohan Kitshoff.

The Lions hung on though thanks to second-half tries from Wepener and centre Doppies La Grange.

The scorers:

For the Lions:
Tries:Ludik 2, Wepenaar 2, Le Grange
Cons: Rose 4
Pen: Rose

For Griquas:
Tries: Pretorius, Seconds, Mentz, Van Heerden, Basson, Kitshoss
Con: Botes 3

Griquas: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Egon Seconds, 13 Lafras Uys, 12 Herkie Kruger (c), 11 Gavin Passens, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Heinrich Stride, 7 Stephan Gerber, 6 Gareth Krause, 5 Jacques Lombaard, 4 Wayne van Heerden, 3 Ruaan du Preez, 2 James van der Walt, 1 Albertus Buckle.
Replacements: 16 Hans van Dyk, 17 Steph Roberts, 18 Cilliers Coetzer, 19 Rohan Kitshoff, 20 Tobie Botes, 21 Bjorn Basson, 22 MJ Mentz.

Lions: 15 Earl Rose, 14 Jaco Pretorius, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Louis Ludik, 10 Louis Strydom, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Franco van der Merwe, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Gerhard Mostert, 4 Dewald Senekal, 3 Lawrence Sephaka, 2 Willie Wepener, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Derek Harwood, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg, 18 Alten Hulme, 19 Justin Wheeler, 20 Chris Jonck, 21 Jaco van Schalkwyk, 22 Tshepo Kokoali.

Referee: Christie du Preez
Touch judges: Lourens van der Merwe, Marc van Zyl
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen
Assessor: Neville Heilbron