Mike Jutan's World: Rugby Game

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Rugby Game

On Saturday it was a cold day but Jimmy won tickets from the newspaper to go see the Gauteng Lions play the Boland Cavaliers in a local Rugby Match for the "Currie Cup", awesome!! So we headed to Ellis Park and it was great. Fun game and awesome times. Here's a review of the game from The Citizen, a South African newspaper.

Rampant Lions crush Cavaliers as they run in eight tries

RUDOLPH JACOBS

JOHANNESBURG - The Lions clawed their way back into third position on the Absa Currie Cup log on Saturday at home in what must be rated as their best performance by far in this year’s competition.

In ice cold weather conditions the Lions crushed the Cavaliers 57-17 after leading 24-10 at the break, running in eight spectacular tries against two intercept tries by the visitors, who, to their credit, never threw in the towel.

A huge challenge now awaits the Lions in Kimberley this weekend against Griquas, who pulled off the first shock of the competition by surprising Western Province with a 21-20 win at home.

But Lions coach Eugene Eloff said they’ll only start preparing for Griquas from today.

“It was a very good win for the Lions, but it was by no means easy. I have heard about Griquas’ surprise win, but for us the win over the Cavaliers was a goal we set and one we achieved,” Eloff said.

“The Cavaliers were never going to be easy opposition after the strong performance they put in against the Sharks, but our goal was to apply pressure, to set up phases to drain their energy and not allow them space,” he said.

A highlight of the game undoubtedly was the introduction of Bok centre Jaque Fourie in the 52nd minute from the bench after a long injury lay-off.

“Jaque didn’t get many opportunities and he undoubtedly lifted the players around him, but it’s probably another four weeks before he can return to the Bok set-up,” Eloff said.

It will be an injustice to single out any individuals in a great Lions team effort with the home team running in their eight tries with regular intervals, with three coming in the first half and five in the second, but players back from injury like No 8 Willem Alberts and experienced centres Doppies la Grange and Jaco Pretorius were outstanding.

Lions captain Cobus Grobbelaar said the confidence from winning their last two games bode well for the rest of the competition.

“There were some great individual efforts and it was important to maintain our possession and to tactically dominate the game, to get points and to increase the gap on the scoreboard,” he said.

In a big blow to Western Province’s Currie Cup aspirations in Kimberley, Griquas recorded their first win by shocking Province 21-20 after they led 12-6 .

Ferocious defence kept Province on the back foot for most of the first half and the home team increased their lead to 18-6, 12 minutes into the second half.

Province, however clawed their way back in the last 20 minutes with tries by flank Francois Louw and prop Brok Harris to regain the lead 20-18 with 12 minutes left in the game, before a huge 62-metre penalty in the 73rd minute by Riaan Viljoen deservedly sealed the game for the home team.