Kings of the jungle
SHATTERED: VISITORS TORN TO PIECES BY WHITELEY’S MEN AT ELLIS PARK
Home side down to 14 men after hooker Coetzee sent off.
Having to play for 48 minutes with a man down did not prevent the clinical Lions from dispatching the Kings with a 54-10 victory in their Super Rugby clash at a chilly Ellis Park yesterday.
Hooker Robbie Coetzee was red-carded in the 32nd minute for striking Kings flanker Chris Cloete with a knee to the head, while Cloete was yellow-carded in the same incident.
It resulted in lock Andries Ferreira having to be taken off to allow replacement hooker Malcolm Marx to take the field.
It was the Lions’ 12th win in 13 starts in the Super Rugby campaign, as they increased their tally to 56 points, with their next game against the rock-bottom Sunwolves scheduled to be played only after the June international window.
While the Lions scored eight tries to one, it was significant that Springbok flanker Jaco Kriel was able to get a valuable 20 minutes of game time, after replacing national captain Warren Whiteley, before South Africa’s series against France.
There was no stopping the stampeding Lions as they built on their half-time lead of 19-3 with five more tries in the second half by Marx, prop Jacques van Rooyen, flank Kwagga Smith, scrumhalf Faf de Klerk and fullback Andries Coetzee.
After a stuttering start, the Lions had kicked into gear by scoring tries via Coetzee in the 12th minute from a maul and a superb one by wing Courtnall Skosan midway through the opening stanza.
Flyhalf Elton Jantjies produced one of his cross-kick gems for Whiteley to field, and he simply off-loaded to the flying Skosan to score his 24th Super Rugby try.
On the stroke of half-time Skosan produced great pace to haul in Kings wing Ntabeni Dukisa following an intercept, and after a great passage of play, Smith raced away for the first of his two tries as they took a healthy advantage into the break before storming clear in the second half.