JOHANNESBURG, May 28 (ANA) – Despite being reduced to 14 men in the first half, the Lions turned on the heat to blast the Southern Kings challenge away in a convincing 54-10 Super Rugby victory at Ellis Park on Sunday.
The Lions ran in eight tries to the lone Kings five-pointer, and had already established their dominance with a 19-3 lead at the break.
The 2016 Super Rugby finalists had to deal with adversity, though, when hooker Robbie Coetzee was red-carded on the half-hour mark for kneeing Kings flank Chris Cloete in the face.
Coetzee’s reaction was in retaliation to Cloete having entered the ruck in a dangerous manner, for which he received a yellow card from referee Jaco Peyper.
As Coetzee is a front-rower, it meant that Lions coach Johan Ackermann had to sacrifice hard-working No 4 lock Andries Ferreira to allow replacement hooker Malcolm Marx to come on.
It was Ferreira, though, who opened the scoring for the home team from a lineout drive in the 11th minute after Kings lock Irné Herbst was yellow-carded for taking out a Lions player in the air at a previous lineout.
While the Kings pack got stuck into the opposition, their defence out wide was tested throughout by the well-balanced Lions outfit.
Flyhalf Elton Jantjies soon dished up a pinpoint cross-kick in the 19th minute and found captain Warren Whiteley, who produced a brilliant offload before contact to put Courtnall Skosan over.
When Coetzee was sent off, the score was 12-3 in favour of the Lions, but they underlined their dominance by dotting down on the stroke of half-time.
With the Lions on attack, Kings’ Ntabeni Dukisa intercepted a Jantjies pass, but was hunted down by Skosan. Fullback Andries Coetzee sparked the counter-attack, and Kwagga Smith wrong-footed Malcolm Jaer to score the third try.
The Kings may have had slim hopes of getting back into the game with the one-man advantage, but the Lions roared back with three tries in 12 minutes after the half-time break to race out to a 40-3 lead.
With the game all but over, the Kings started falling off tackles, and lost the energy they displayed in the first half.
There was a consolation try for inside centre Luzuko Vulindlu, who intercepted a Jantjies pass to Lionel Mapoe, at the start of the final quarter.
But that was where it ended for the Eastern Cape franchise, with the Lions running in two further tries in the final few minutes to bring up 35 points in the second half.
Scorers: Lions 54 (19): Tries: Andries Ferreira, Courtnall Skosan, Kwagga Smith (2), Malcolm Marx, Jacques van Rooyen, Faf de Klerk, Andries Coetzee. Conversions: Elton Jantjies (5), Andries Coetzee (2). Kings 10 (3): Try: Luzuko Vulindlu. Conversion: Pieter-Steyn de Wet (1). Penalty: De Wet (1). – African News Agency (ANA)
