Griquas claim another scalp

The Griquas continued their fine run on Friday, beating the Lions 23-19 in Johannesburg to notch up their fourth straight win.

The Griquas continued their fine run in the Currie Cup on Friday, beating the Lions 23-19 in Johannesburg to notch up their fourth straight win.

The men from Kimberley led 20-7 at half time after which they held off a strong challenge from the home side in the second period to retain a convincing lead atop the Cup log.

Griquas started off the better side with fly-half Naas Olivier kicking well tactically and effectively making full-back Earl Rose run around a lot.

The visitors also claimed cleaner line-out posession and built pressure from there. But it was from a counter attack after an aimless Lions kick that the first try came to being.

Dewald Pretorius caught the ball and swung it back in field to Olivier. The former Stormer again put it on the boot to chase and when opposite number Herkie Kruger couldn't gather, Olivier booted it ahead again and scored from there.

The Griquas' fly-half next turned culprit as he threw an intercept pass to Rose with his team hot on the attack. Rose nearly ran all the way but was caught from behind by Griquas' flyer Bjorn Basson. He did offload to Alwyn Hollenbach though and the latter opened the Lions account.

An Olivier penalty shortly before the Lions' try ensured the visitors were still in front and after 26 minutes they stretched the lead through a try by Barry Geel.

Lively Griquas loose forward and captain Jonathan Mokuena set up the try by offloading well in a tackle situation and Geel had only one man to beat. It was Rose, and the Lions fullback failed to pull his opponent down and Geel dotted down.

Five minutes before the break Olivier kicked another penalty and the Griquas lead was stretched to 20-7. That was also the half time score.

The Lions did claw back three points after the break through the boot of Kruger.

One of the moments of the match followed early in the second half when Lions eighthman, Willem Alberts, smashed Griquas centre Jaco Bekker off his feet in a rock hard tackle which would surely have been named the hit of the season had the game been broadcast on television for all to see.

This inspired the Lions and Kruger soon kicked another penalty. The Lions nearly shot themselves in the foot though, when a late charge by their centre Rouan Cloete left them with 14 men for 10 minutes.

The Griquas didn't score in this period though but managed to get their first points of the second half through a penalty by Riaan Viljoen.

It was the Lions who piled on the pressure in the later stages though and Kruger again closed the gap with a penalty kick leaving the Lions with a four point deficit in the dying minutes.

But that was it for the home side as the Griquas defence proved strong enough to last out the 80 minutes.

For the winning side compliments must go to a tight five who not only did their basic chores well but also shone in the loose play – none more so than lock Jacques Lombaard and prop Ruaan du Preez.

In the backs Olivier always had the ever reliable Geel on his outside whilst Basson and Viljoen were their main strike runners in the game.

The Scorers:

For the Lions:
Try: Hollenbach
Con: Kruger
Pens: Kruger 4

For the Griquas:
Tries: Olivier, Geel
Cons: Olivier 2
Pens: Olivier 2, Viljoen

Lions: 15 Earl Rose, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Alwyn Hollenbach, 12 Rouan Cloete, 11 Johan Jackson, 10 Herkie Kruger, 9 Chris Jonck, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Franco van der Merwe, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Willem Stoltz, 4 Nico Luus, 3 Gert Muller, 2 Hans van Dyk, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg.
Replacements: 16 Derek Harwood, 17 Kevin Buys, 18 John Snyman, 19 Derick Minnie, 20 Freddie van Zyl, 21 Rouan Boshoff, 22 Henno Mentz.

Griquas: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Dewald Pretorius, 13 Jaco Bekker, 12 Barry Geel, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Jonathan Mokuena (captain), 7 Davon Raubenheimer, 6 Rohan Kitshoff, 5 Jacques Lombaard, 4 Brendon Snyman, 3 Ruaan du Preez, 2 Rayno Barnes, 1 Albertus Buckle.
Replacements: 16 Simon Westraadt, 17 Steph Roberts, 18 Heinrich Stride, 19 Sean Plaatjies, 20 Dougie Hellmuth, 21 Hanno Coetzee, 22 Egon Seconds/Gavin Passens.

Referee: Jonathan Kaplan