Earl Rose scored a hat-trick to help the Xerox Lions secure their first win of the season when they beat the Valke 35-23 (half-time 18-8) in an ABSA Currie Cup game at Coca-Cola Park on Friday.

The game played at the stadium formerly known as Ellis Park, heralded the venue’s new name and the Lions administration will be hoping that the lucrative change of name deal will bring with it fortunes on the field as well.

The hosts bolted out of the blocks, playing at break-neck intensity from kick off and were immediately rewarded with a try in the second minute when eigthman Wilhelm Koch picked up a loose ball before off-loading to lock-cum-flank Franco van der Merwe who raced in from the 22m line.

The Lions pace characteristically fizzled out very quickly while the Valke showed they belong at this level and the final score reflects unfairly on the performance of the men from the East Rand.

When they got going they troubled their more illustrious Gauteng neighbours as they went about their business with a resolute but quiet confidence, regularly stringing together passages of play littered with multiple phases.

Veteran eigthman Sean Plaatjies and twinkle toed centre Rouan Cloete led the assault to scare last year’s finalists and when they came on, man-mountain wing Dewald Pretorius and young-up-and-coming flyhalf Len Olivier also broke the defensive line at will.

Rose scored his first try in the 15th minute and added a conversion and two penalties to give his team an undeserved 10 point advantage at half-time.

Ten minutes into the second spell the Valke upped the ante as they drew level through a concerted team effort try finished off by Cloete as well as a penalty by Olivier.

However, prospects of an upset (which really looked like a reality for most of the game) were dealt a blow when Rose slotted a penalty then scored and converted a try after his cheeky chip was collected and off-loaded by wing Heini Gordon.

Valke coach Rudi Joubert has obviously mandated his charges to play positive rugby as time-and-time again they daringly ran the ball out of their own 22. Sometimes it worked as was the case when flanker Emile Verster finished off a move started deep in their half following a turnover and great bullocking run by Pretorius.

The introduction of a new front row by the Lions with 20 minutes to go, buoyed the hosts and got them on the front foot. The Valke had won the battle of the scrums up until that point but hooker Willie Wepener together with props Gert Muller and Heinke van der Merwe reversed the advantage.

Rose, who ended with a tally of 30 points, then finished off his man-of-the-match performance with another converted try seven minutes from the final whistle and had it not been for his moments of brilliance, the Lions could have come out of this encounter embarrassingly empty-handed.

Coach Eugene Eloff will be happy that his strategy of a 5-2 bench was also a telling factor but he will be worried that his charges continued to miss a lot of opportunities and repeatedly failed to finish.

Three out of the four of their tries were scored from turn overs while their option taking and decision making was atrocious.

At this rate, stadium name change or not, the Lions will struggle to make the play-offs this season.

Scorers:

Xerox Lions – Tries: Franco van der Merwe, Earl Rose (3) Conversions: Rose (3) Penalties: Rose (3)
Valke – Tries: Dewald Pretorius, Rouan Cloete, Emile Verster Conversions: Len Olivier Penalties: Jacques Schutte, Olivier

Source: sarugby.com