Lions roar into semifinals

Wellington have secured a semifinal spot in Mitre 10 Cup Championship rugby after demolishing Southland at Westpac Stadium last night.

The emphatic bonus point trouncing brings the Lions within a point of Championship leader Otago, and creates an insurmountable 16- point buffer over fifth- placed Bay of Plenty with three games remaining.

After several close wins, the comfortable nature of the scoreline would have pleased Wellington coach Earl Va’a, who saw his raft of big name players all contribute in their best attacking performance of the season.

The most telling disparity between the t wo sides came in the forward packs. The Wellington forwards epitomised the modern game – running at pace, fending and constantly looking to link up with support runners.

Vaea Fifita was the most dangerous, running for 98 powerful metres; in comparison the Southland forward pack could only muster a pitiful 82 metres combined as they lacked incision and width in their play.

Wellington were marshalled by the calming presence of 21- year- old Jackson Garden- Bachop, who provided excellent link- up play and t wo try assists as Wellington racked up their biggest scoring output since 2009.

The hosts crossed nine times in total and ended with a remarkable 830 running metres as Southland expectedly showed the fatiguing effects of playing their third game in 10 days, missing 36 tackles.