Rating
Unranked
Not comparable with the ranked field · Glicko-2 1727 ±104
Record
27-1-27
49.1% of 55 matches in the last five years
Average margin
+3.1
31.5 for, 28.4 against
Home advantage
+13.0
Points per match better at home
- Captain
- Francke Horn (URC & ERCC)
- Founded
- 1889
- League
- United Rugby Championship
- Ground
- Ellis Park Stadium
- Capacity
- 62,567
- Based in
- Johannesburg, South Africa
From Wikipedia, read 2026-10-19. Not an input to any forecast — the rating does not know who is coaching.
Griquas2026-09-06 · away12–52lost
Western Province2026-08-28 · home36–12won
Natal Sharks2026-08-21 · away22–22drew
Boland Cavaliers2026-08-14 · home29–38lost- Griquas2026-08-08 · away19–31lost
Newest first, from Golden Lions's own point of view. Home and away are as the record stores them; a fixture the record does not mark neutral is listed as one side's home, which is right for a league round and wrong for a final played at a third ground.
Biggest win: 62-5 v Griffons
Heaviest defeat: 14-66 v Free State Cheetahs
No recent result connects Golden Lions to the ranked field, so their rating sits on a scale that cannot be compared with it.
Teams that play alike sit close together. The two axes hold 72% of the variation between teams. Component 1 (46%) rises with more average margin and win rate. Component 2 (25%) rises with more high-scoring matches and margin swing.
52 of 84 teams sit too close together to name without covering another team's point, so they are drawn unlabelled. Every dot is still a link to that team, and hovering one names it.
- 1Blue Bulls0.56
- 2Griquas1.49
- 3Pumas1.54
- 4Northampton Saints1.56
- 5Bristol Rugby1.78
Distance in the projection above, nearest first.