South African Rugby Union

8th August 2015

The Xerox Golden Lions got their Absa Currie Cup campaign off to a flying start with a convincing 51-14 (halftime 31-7) bonus-point victory over the EP Kings at Nelson Mandela Bay stadium on Saturday.

The Lions were full value for their victory. They exacted early damage on the Kings and once they had secured enough of a points cushion they seemed to do just enough to keep their opponents at arm’s length for the remainder of the game.

The Kings, who only won one out of 10 Currie Cup matches last season, seem set for another testing campaign among the big guns of South African rugby.

Any hopes they had of staging an upset were quickly extinguished when the Lions ran in four tries in the first quarter. It was a hammer blow for the Kings and one they never recovered from.

The visitors scored from the very first kick-off when some fine inter-passing from deep within their own half saw flank Kwagga Smith rounding off the first try in the opening minute. Flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff slotted the conversion.

Four minutes later they were at it again when right wing Courtnell Skosan danced his way past half a dozen defenders and displayed a clean pair of heels to score under the posts. Boshoff was on target again.

From there, the Kings were on the back foot and struggled to get themselves into the game. Matters became even worse when Howard Mnisi went through untouched for the third try. Smith then grabbed his second try which was also the bonus-point score and this after only 16 minutes. Boshoff succeeded with both conversions.

Right wing Sylvain Mahuza finally got the Kings on the scoreboard after 19 minutes with an intercept try which saw him run 45 metres. Fullback Scott van Breda added the two points before Boshoff added a penalty in the 34th minute to complete the first half.

The Lions spent much of the early stages of second half in Kings territory but by the top of the hour they only had two Boshoff penalties to show for it.

When EP did manage to force their way into the Lions’ half they were rewarded with a try by replacement prop Simon Kerrod who burst over the tryline following a number of phases.

But it was inevitable that the Lions would add to their try tally and it was Smith who clinched his third try of the game in the 69th minute with Boshoff adding the extras.

Skosan grabbed his second try in the match with two minutes remaining to bring up the half-century for the Lions. Boshoff slotted the conversion to complete a flawless kicking display for the afternoon.

Scorers

EP Kings - Tries: Sylvain Mahuza, Simon Kerrod; Conversions: Scott van Breda (2)

Xerox Golden Lions - Tries: Kwagga Smith (3), Courtnell Skosan (2), Howard Mnisi; Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (6); Penalties: Marnitz Boshoff (3)