The Lions reached the Currie Cup final, but their performance hardly carried the promise of gold against a pragmatic Griquas side here yesterday.
The Lions reached the final for the first time since 2015 when they won the tournament but they made heavy weather of beating Griquas.
Despite holding the whip hand the Lions put the issue beyond doubt only when flank Marnus Schoeman crashed over at the back of a marauding ruck.
The Lions often played themselves into positions of promise but fluffed their lines when it came to the knockout blow.
Griquas, it has to be said, are a well organised side and they will miss departing coach Brent Janse van Rensburg next season. They were outplayed here but it wasn't reflected on the scoreboard until the closing minutes.
The visitors were heavily reliant on the trusty boot of flyhalf George Whitehead, who contributed 14 of his team's points.
For all their possession and territory the Lions struggled to make headway in the first half. They also dominated the scrum but rarely were they able to profit commensurate with their monopoly of the ball.
It was a first half blighted by errors.
The Lions struggled to build continuity, often as a result of their failure to secure clean ball from the ruck. Their ball protection was at times quite shoddy.
It was a first half blighted by errors
Moreover, they conceded silly penalties that served to relieve pressure on the visitors but it also presented the deadly accurate George Whitehead the opportunity to keep his team in touch. He did just that and his team was within a point of the hosts until the last play of the first half.
By contrast the Lions, in the first half, eschewed opportunities to kick penalties at goal and when Griquas' maul defence didn't frustrate them, they found ways of not grounding the ball, as was the case when Stean Pienaar lost the ball forward in the 35th minute.
The Lions finally had something to show for their dominance in the last 12 minutes of the first half when No 8 Hacjivah Dayimani touched down after the siren to the palpable relief of almost all in attendance.
Much earlier in the half the Lions got on the board in encouraging fashion.
Madosh Tambwe's try in the eighth minute required a fair amount of bloody mindedness from the strapping wing. Though Shaun Reynolds delivered a deft pass to the wing tucked up next to the right touchline, Tambwe stepped and skipped out of a few tackles before reaching for the line.
Though Griquas drew level with a try from Chris Smit, the Lions hit the lead with a splendidly orchestrated try from Pienaar. It all seemed so easy then.
Golden Lions - Tries: Madosh Tambwe, Stean Pienaar, Hacjivah Dayimani, Marnus Schoeman. Conversions: Shaun Reynolds (4). Penalties: Reynolds (2).
Griquas: Try: Chris Smit. Conversion: George Whitehead. Penalties: Whitehead (4)
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