The Golden Lions massacred the Valke 62-5 in an Absa Currie Cup fixture at a chilly Bosman Stadium in Brakpan on Friday evening. The Lions jumped to fourth place on the Currie Cup log with only their second win from five games, while their opponents remain rooted to the bottom.
The Lions made their intentions known as early as the second minute when Louis Ludik went over for the first of four tries. The fullback came flying through after his teammates set him up for an easy try.
Six minutes later, the Valke were forced back in their 22-yard area and the Lions forced a penalty that Strydom easily converted to make the score 10-0. A minute later, eighth-man Jacques Cronje powered through a hapless Valke defence to increase the score further.
With the Valke constantly on the back foot they committed more errors as the half wore on. In the 16th minute, Lions centre Jannie Boshoff charged down a punt by Leonard Olivier and collected the ball to run unopposed and score.
Another 14 minutes went by before the visitors scored again. The Valke defence became more desperate as they threw everything into the tackle to stop the Lions from scoring, but the Lions grew in confidence as they held on to the ball.
Boshoff and winger Wylie Human combined well to set Ryno Benjamin free down the left to score the last try of the half. The Lions started the second half with the same intensity they displayed in the first and touched down four minutes after the restart.
Ten minutes later, Strydom crossed the try line but could not convert his effort from 30m out. The Valke got five points when Morne Adams went over, but Olivier could not convert. Substitute Jaco van Schalkwyk had an immediate impact after coming on as he ran 50m to start a move that resulted in Human scoring. Van Schalkwyk stepped up to convert the try.
The Lions back line grew more confident as the half wore on, while their counterparts made more mistakes. Benjamin capitalised on a handling error by the Valke, sped towards the try line and drew defenders before laying off a pass to man-of-the-match Cronje to get his second of the night.
Four minutes later, Benjamin again stole the ball and deceptively side-stepped a Valke player as he also went over the try line for his second of the game. The score line could have increased, but the overconfident Lions made silly mistakes going forward and lost possession unnecessarily — albeit in the last five minutes of the game.
The Lions have a chance of getting to the semifinals, but have to wait for the results of the Currie Cup games taking place on Saturday. — Sapa