Lions break their duck against Falcons

The Golden Lions recorded their first win of the season, breaking their Currie Cup duck with a hard-earned 32-19 win over the Falcons at Ellis Park on Friday night. The bonus-point win saw the Lions move off the bottom of the standings.

Two-try hero: Louis Ludik

The Falcons played lots of rugby, and the Lions got lots of points.

Two great passes by Jody Rose and a slice of luck and they led 22-13 at the break on a cold, cold Highveld night with just a sprinkling of diehards to pockmark the cavernous stadium.

After Louis Strydom's left boot had given the Falcons a penalty's worth of lead, his side kept on playing their structured rugby with purpose - until they dropped the ball. Advantage was played and Rose threw a long, perfect pass to Jaco Pretorius. The Springbok Sevens captain, darted, dummied and accelerated and was suddenly away for the try which Mark Harris, on the left wing this week, converted.

The score had hardly been recorded when the Lions got their fortuitous score. It started with a great run by Wylie Human, tip-toeing down the right touch line. He booted ahead and there was pressure on the Falcons to recover. They did and won the ball back from a ruck to Strydom who started to boot the ball to touch. The boot hit the ball but the ball hit Human's hands as he charged it down into the Falcons' in-goal where the wing fell on the ball just shorty of the dead-ball line. 12-3.

The Falcons tried a five-metre line-out from a penalty but overthrew the ball. When they forced Jano Vermaak into touch they got another five-metre line-out. This time they got the throw right and then raced a fragmented maul over the line for what looked like something some could sometimes construe as truck-'n-trailer. Strydom converted. 12-10 to the Lions.

Harris and Strydom swapped penalties and it was 15-13 with half-time looming.

The Lions went left and Rose put the shortest of jabs into Louis Ludik's belly as the fullback came barging through for a try in the left-hand corner. Almost from touch Harris converted and half-time descended on the night air.

There was sparkle in the first half but the second half was flat beer. For 38 minutes precious little happened. The sides swapped penalties and there it was fading out to a dreary end, the Lions destined to get four points, the Falcons one when suddenly there was life. The whimper turned to a shout.

It did not look great as the Lions plodded through two innocuous phases just inside the Falcons' half and then moved the ball left. Earl Rose, on for his younger brother, heaved a long pass to his left which hit ground and bounced - and then electricity happened.

Jaco van Schalkwyk, on for Jaco Pretorius snatched up the ball and accelerated. He skated around the outside of Hanno Coetzee who did not get a hand to him. Van Schalkwyk straightened to run at fullback Rian Viljoen, fixing him to the spot. Van Schalkwyk then threw a perfect pass to Ludik on his left and the wing swept over for the try that cancelled the Falcons' point and stuck it onto the Lions' spoils. Harris converted from far out.

The win meant that the hitherto winless Lions took five points for the match while the Falcons went east without anything to show for their earnest efforts. It did not help their cause that their best and liveliest player, scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius was subbed in the second half.

There was an interesting bit of law in this half. The Falcons lost Bosman Grobler to the blood bin with the Lions on the attack. The Lions came from left to right when suddenly large Sean Plaatjies flung his bulk into a tackle - and was penalised for it. He had run onto the field to take Bosman's place but without permission. That gave the Lions their second fiver-metre line-out, from which they again failed to score.

The scorers:

For the Lions:
Tries: Pretorius, Human, Ludik 2
Cons: Harris 3
Pens: Harris 2

For the Falcons:
Try: Strudwick
Con: Strydom
Pens: Strydom 4

Teams:

Lions: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Wylie Human, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wayne Julies, 11 Mark Harris, 10 Jody Rose, 9 Jano Vermaak; 8 Ernst Joubert (captain), 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Gerhard Mostert, 4 Willem Stoltz, 3 Bertus Smit, 2 Ethienne Reyneke, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Andre van Niekerk, 17 Gert Muller, 18 Schalk van der Merwe, 19 Roland Bernard, 20 Rory Kockott, 21 Earl Rose, 22 Jaco van Schalkwyk.

Falcons: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Brendon April, 13 Sam Willard, 12 Hanno Coetzee, 11 Mpho Matsaung, 10 Louis Strydom, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Michael Vermaak, 7 Bosman Grobler, 6 Piet Krause (captain), 5 Nico Luus, 4 Ryan Strudwick, 3 Piet Grobler, 2 Zane Killian, 1 Gavin Whittingham.
Replacements: 16 Hercules Jansen van Vuuren, 17 Phillip Lemmer, 18 Dewald Senekal, 19 Dries van Schalkwyk, 20 Morne Adams, 21 Sean Plaatjies, 22 Dean Okkers.

Referee: Phillip Bosch (Eastern Province)
Touch judges: Christie du Preez (Eastern Province), Andries Selemela (Leopards)
Television match official: Shaun Veldsman (Boland)
Selector: Carel du Plessis, Freek Burger