Publications
Partners
Kimberley - The Golden Lions moved off the foot of the Currie Cup table and up to third with a 34-17 bonus-point win over Griquas in Kimberley on Friday night.
It is just the third time that the Lions have won this season in eight fixtures, and this result will reignite their belief that they can progress to the tournament playoffs.
Griquas have been a competitive side all season, but they did not show up for this clash until it was too late.
They now move to the bottom of the log.
The Lions scored first half tries through Cyle Brink, Kwagga Smith and Marco Jansen van Vuuren to take a 21-0 lead into half time that looked far too much of an ask for Griquas.
The second half, though, was a different story.
The Lions extended their lead to 24-0 via the boot of Jaco van der Walt, but a scrappy period of play followed that resulted in no points for either side.
But when Smith was sin-binned just before the hour mark, the numerical advantage gave Griquas the chance to get back in the game.
Two quick-fire tries through Kyle Steyn and Adriaan Coertzen took Griquas from without a point to just 24-14 down in an instant, and with 15 minutes left on the clock they would have been sensing a comeback.
George Whitehead then knocked over a penalty to make it 24-17 - all of Griquas' points coming with Smith off the field.
Griquas had their tails up and almost drew level, but a second Van der Walt penalty restored the 10-point lead for the Lions.
Any chance Griquas had was extinguished when Springbok centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg gathered a chip over the top to score next to the posts and put the game to bed.
Scorers:
Griquas 17 (0)
Tries: Kyle Steyn, Adriaan Coertzen
Conversions: George Whitehead (2)
Penalty: Whitehead
Golden Lions 34 (21)
Tries: Cyle Brink, Kwagga Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuuren, Rohan Janse van Rensburg
Conversions: Jaco van der Walt (4)
Penalties: Van der Walt (2)
Teams:
Griquas
15 Adriaan Coertzen (captain), 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Tertius Kruger, 12 Johnathan Francke, 11 Koch Marx, 10 Andre Swarts, 9 Christiaan Meyer, 8 De Wet Kruger, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Pieter Janse van Vuren, 4 Shaun McDonald, 3 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 2 Abraham le Roux, 1 Liam Hendricks
Substitutes: 16 Wilmar Arnoldi, 17 Stephan Kotze, 18 Sintu Manjezi, 19 Kevin Kaba, 20 Renier Botha, 21 George Whitehead, 22 Eric Zana
Lions
15 Jaco van der Walt, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Anthony Volmink, 10 Ashlon Davids, 9 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Kwagga Smith, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Rhyno Herbst, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Jacques van Rooyen (captain)
Substitutes: 16 Pieter Jansen, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Robert Kruger, 20 Fabian Booysen, 21 Branco du Preez, 22 Aphiwe Dyantyi
