Golden Lions inflict first loss on Sharks XV

March 19 – The Golden Lions kept contact with the front runners of the Codacom Cup North Section, GWK Griquas and Pumas, when they beat the Sharks XV 23-15 at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday.

It was the first defeat of the cross-section competition for the Natal XV – and they greatly have the Golden lions' former Springbok flyhalf Andre Pretorius to blame for that.

Within the first two minutes his pin-point diagonal kick was collected from the air by Dusty Noble, and with a fine conversion from Pretorius, the Golden Lions were 7-0 up. Pretorius also controlled matters well on a wet field and with a slippery ball that gave the less experienced players problems - and he put the result beyond doubt when he kicked his third penalty seven minutes from time to put the Lions more than one score ahead.

There was little running rugby. Both sides made many handling errors, and promising moves were brought to an end by handling as much as by good tackling.

After the early 7-0 lead to the Lions, the Sharks XV truck back almost immediately when flyhalf Guy Cronjé sidestepped his way through the defence for a try he converted himself. But after 12 minutes the Lions were ahead again after a Pretorius penalty (10-7)

The Sharks then went ahead with their second try when winger Piet Lindeque intercepted a pass by Lions prop Jacobie Adriaanse 60 metres out. It remained a close, tight and somewhat messy battle but five minutes before the break Pretorius gave newcomer Divan Ferguson a clear run-in which he utilised well by beating the cover defence.

Sharks scrumhalf Ross Cronjé slotted a 37th-minute penalty to narrow the gap, but Pretorius was equal to the task on the stroke of halftime to make it a five-point ball game at the break. Only the single penalty seven minutes from fulltime was scored in the second half.Scorers:

Golden Lions: Tries: Dusty Noble, Divan Ferguson. Conversions: André Pretorius (2). Penalties: Pretorius (3).

Sharks XV: Tries: Guy Cronjé, Piet Lindeque. Conversion: Guy Cronjé. Penalty: Ross Cronjé.