Lions maul hapless Leopards
Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:27
The Lions seized the advantage in the last quarter of their Currie Cup match against the Leopards in Phokeng on Saturday to run out 40-19 winners.
The visitors scored three second half tries, after Leopards inside centre Japie Nel was red carded for allegedly groping an opponent's private parts, with his side down by two points at 16-18.
It was one-way traffic with the Leopards one man down and captain Willem Alberts, hooker Hans van Dyk and Earl Rose sealed a victory to make the scoreline easier than it actually was when the sides competed in even numbers.
Clayton Durand opened the scoring with a drop-goal through the centre of the posts after five or six phases, but his former Lions Under-20 and Pukke teammate Walter Venter scored soon afterwards - when Jean Tiedt botched an Earl Rose up-'n-under.
The two sides sparred for the next 20 minutes, before Leopards left wing Jovan Bowles found a Lions pass in his bread-basket and he raced away 60 meters to score unchallenged for the home side to take a 10-5 lead.
Bowles soon found himself in the sin-bin when Jano Vermaak sniped when they were rewarded a penalty. Vermaak slipped and Bowles went in high. Earl Rose was successful with his first kick from slap-bang in front.
Outside centre Rouan Cloete seemed destined to run in unchallenged minutes later, but slipped yards short of the goal-line and the Leopards scrambled to survive another close call.
Venter scored his second minutes before the break to give the Lions back their lead after a swooping move which started in their own 22, when Dusty Noble marked the ball and played to his left, where the Lions had more players.
Durand pulled the Lions' half-time lead of 15-10 back to two points with a precision kick from 40 metres out and kicked another penalty from close to the touch-line to put the Leopards ahead eight minutes after the restart.
The Lions had to introduce Herkie Kruger to get them back in the lead with his goal-kicking, after Deon van Rensburg was judged to hold on.
Big Japie Nel was red-carded for groping an opponent with the Leopards on attack and Lions hooker Hans van Dyk scored at the bottom of a maul, which looked suspiciously like a truck-and-trailer.
With 10 minutes to go Clayton Durand slotted his second drop-goal of the match from 40 meters out to close the gap to four points.
Lions captain Willem Alberts bulldozed his way over to score the bonus point try and settle matters for the visitors, who sailed into an 11-point lead.
Earl Rose mesmerized the Leopards defence in the dying minutes to score under the posts and seal an eventual lop-sided victory.
Scorers:
Leopards:
Try: Bowles
Con: Durand
Pens: Durand 2
DGs: Durand 2
Lions:
Try: Venter 2,
Van Dyk, Alberts, Rose
Cons: Rose, Kruger
Pens: Rose, Kruger 2
Yellow card: Jovan Bowles (Leopards, 26 - foul play, high tackle)
Red card: Japie Nel (Leopards, 59 - foul play, groping private parts)
Teams:
Leopards: 15 Jean Tiedt, 14 Jovan Bowles, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Japie Nel, 11 Jan van Zyl, 10 Clayton Durand, 9 Michael Bondesio, 8 RW Kember, 7 Bennie Adams, 6 Wilhelm Koch (captain), 5 Anthonie Gronum, 4 Rynard Landman, 3 Philip Lemmer, 2 Gavin Williamson, 1 Nardus Lombard.
Replacements: 16 Pellow van der Westhuizen, 17 Os van der Walt, 18 Rudi Mathee, 19 Christo van Niekerk, 20 Berndt Theissinger, 21 Muhammed Samaai, 22 Danie Dames.
Lions: 15 Alwyn Hollenbach, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Rouan Cloete, 12 Walter Venter, 11 Henno Mentz, 10 Earl Rose, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Willem Alberts (captain), 7 Franco
van der Merwe, 6 Derick Minnie, 5 Willem Stoltz, 4 Johan Snyman, 3 Kevin Buys, 2 Hans van Dyk, 1 Wayne Swart.
Replacements: 16 Torrie Meyer, 17 Ross Geldenhuys, 18 Wouter Moore, 19 Todd Clever, 20 Chris Jonck, 21 Herkie Kruger, 22 Johan Jackson.
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Mlungiseli Mdashe, Christie du Preez
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