Golden Lions rout Griquas
A Courtnall Skosan hat-trick inspired the Golden Lions to a comprehensive 62-41 victory over the Griquas at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Friday.
The Lions opened their campaign with a victory as Skosan scored three and man-of-the-match Hajcivah Dayimani chipped in with two, while the Griquas were on the receiving end of their second drubbing of the season.
Although it was the Griquas who took an early 3-0 lead through a George Whitehead penalty, the Golden Lions would respond instantaneously with the first try of the match through Dayimani out on the overlap after nine phases of good, patient build-up from the hosts. The try came after the Lions’ skipper and scrum-half Ross Cronje had taken the quick tap from the penalty advantage.
But the Griquas would hit back much to the shock of the home crowd, especially as it came against the run of play. Miscommunication between the Golden Lions half-back pairing of Cronje and Shaun Reynolds would result in the ball spilling loose; Andre Swarts gleefully accepting the gift and running in under the posts. Whitehead added the extras to restore the lead for the away side at 10-7 with 16 minutes gone.
The hosts would exert pressure on the leaders straight from the kick-off, resulting in referee Egon Seconds dishing out a warning to Griquas skipper Kyle Steyn for repeated infringements at the breakdown. The hosts would opt for the scrum from the penalty which would prove to be the right decision as number nine Cronje sniped over with a darting run from first phase. Reynolds made no mistake with the conversion to make it a 14-10 lead to the Golden Lions.
Soon after, the home side extended the lead as Springbok wing Skosan scored a magnificent individual try when he ran on to Jan-Louis la Grange’s grubber and showed excellent footballing skills to control the ball over the try-line before diving on it for the finish.
Moments later, the Griquas would show some mettle, hitting back via hooker Khwezi Mafu who burrowed over after a series of powerful carries from the forwards, with Whitehead’s conversion narrowing the deficit to just two seven minutes out from the interval.
And shortly afterwards when Corne Fourie was penalised for popping up at the scrum due to overwhelming pressure from the visitors’ pack, Whitehead would ensure they went into the interval with a shock one-point lead. However, they would lose Wendal Wehr to the sin-bin on the stroke of half-time.
The Golden Lions would come out firing in the second-half and capitalised on their numerical advantage, scoring two quick tries in the opening ten minutes. First, Sylvian Mahuza scored an intercept try not dissimilar to Swarts’ in the first-half. This would give the home side a 29-20 lead. Then, flank Len Massyn would go over with a little pick and go for 36-20.
Skosan then grabbed his second before Wilmar Arnoldi hit back for the visitors to make it 43-27. Five minutes later, it was a special moment for Wandisile Simelane, who grabbed his first try in a Lions jersey to make it 50-27.
Dayimani then also grabbed his double with AJ Coertzen hitting back for the away side. To cap it all off, Skosan secured the hat-trick to put the icing on the cake of an impressive performance from the Golden Lions as they ran out 62-41 winners.
The scorers:
For Golden Lions:
Tries: Dayimani 2, Cronje, Skosan 3, Mahuza, Massyn, Simelane
Cons: Reynolds 7
Pen: Reynolds
For Griquas:
Tries: Swarts, Mkhafu, Arnoldi, Steyn, Coertzen
Cons: Whitehead 5
Pens: Whitehead 2
Yellow Card: Wehr
Golden Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 Jan-Louis la Grange, 12 Manni Rass, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Shaun Reynolds, 9 Ross Cronje (c), 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Len Massyn, 6 James Venter, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Rhyno Herbst, 3 Johannes Jonker, 2 Corne Fourie, 1 Sti Sithole
Replacements: 16 HP van Schoor, 17 Jacobie Adriaanse, 18 PJ Steenkamp, 19 Vincent Tshituka, 20 Dillon Smit, 21 Tyrone Green, 22 Wandisile Simelane
Griquas: 15 AJ Coertzen, 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Kyle Steyn (c), 12 Christopher Bosch, 11, Godfrey Ramaboea, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Christiaan Meyer, 8 Conway Pretorius, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 FP Pelser, 4 Sintu Manjezi, 3 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 2 Khwezi Mkhafu, 1 Devon Martinus
Replacements: 16 AJ Le Roux, 17 Liam Hendricks, 18 Ruan Kramer, 19 Pieter Van Vuren, 20 Izak Burger, 21 Jonathan Janse van Rensburg, 22 Andre Swarts
Referee: Egon Seconds
Assistant referees: Ben Crouse, Christopher Allison
TMO: Lesego Legoete