Currie Cup - Lions vs WP on 5 December 2020
December 5, 2020 - The match was played at Ellis Park on Saturday 5 December 2020, and kicked off at 19:00 SA Time.
The match was played in cold weather, and with a lot of rain falling before the match the surface was also wet and cutting up with every scrum.
Tim Swiel opened the scoring for the visitors with a penalty after 6 minutes, to which Tiaan Swanepoel replied with a massive 65 metre penalty. It sounds like this might just be the longest penalty ever kicked at Ellis Park, and it levelled the score at 3-3 after 18 minutes.
Four minutes later Tim Swiel kicked another penalty to make it 6-3 for WP, and 6 minutes later Swanepoel evened it at 6-6 with another penalty for the Lions. Just before the break Swiel added another penalty to put Western Province in a 9-6 lead at half time.
Just after the break, Swiel kicked another penalty to make it 12-6, but Swanepoel kicked another for the Lions to make it 12-9 after 50 minutes.
Seabelo Senatla then scored the first try of the match, although it looked like the initial gap was created by obstruction from Kolisi on Simelane. Senatla took the gap, and then beat a tackle by Pienaar, stepped Swanepoel, and passed to Nel on his outside. Nel was tackled by Pienaar, but managed to get the pass away back to Senatla, who then beat the tackle of Skosan and Tshituka to score under the poles. Swiel converted to make it 19-9 and put Western Province in a comfortable 10 point lead with less than 30 minutes left to play.
Swanepoel reduced it to 7 points with another penalty after 67 minutes, and then with 10 minutes left to play Stean Pienaar took a quick tap from a penalty just inside the WP 22 metre line, and beat 3 tackles to score. Elton Jantjies converted to make it 19-all
In the final stages of the game the Lions were on the attack, but they just could not break the defense from WP, but just before the final hooter WP was caught offside and this allowed Swanepoel the steal the match for the Lions with a penalty pretty much in front of the poles.
Officials
Referee: Griffin Colby
AR1: Marius van der Westhuizen
AR2: Rasta Rasivhenge
TMO: Marius Jonker
Teams
Lions: 15. Tiaan Swanepoel; 14. Stean Pienaar, 13. Wandisile Simelane, 12. Burger Odendaal, 11. Courtnall Skosan; 10. Elton Jantjies (Capt), 9. Ross Cronjé; 8. Len Massyn, 7. Vincent Tshituka, 6. Jaco Kriel, 5. Marvin Orie, 4. Willem Alberts, 3. Ruan Dreyer, 2. Jaco Visagie, 1. Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16. Jan-Henning Campher, 17. Dylan Smith, 18. Wiehahn Herbst, 19. Reinhard Nothnagel, 20. Wilhelm van der Sluys, 21. Roelof Smit, 22. Morné van den Berg, 23. Dan Kriel.
WP: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Tim Swiel, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: (from) 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 David Meihuizen, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Johan du Toit, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Tristan Leyds, 24 Jaco Coetzee, 25 Kade Wolhuter, 26 Rikus Pretorius.
Scorers
Lions: 22 (6): Tries: Stean Pienaar. Conversions: Elton Jantjies. Penalties: Tiaan Swanepoel(5).
WP: 19 (9): Tries: Seabelo Senatla. Conversions: Tim Swiel. Penalties: Tim Swiel(4).