Lions' first-half blitz destroys Edinburgh
MATCH REPORT: The Lions made it two wins in a row in this season's United Rugby Championship after they thumped Edinburgh 55-21 in their Round Three clash at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The home side produced an incredible first-half performance, scoring seven tries to go into the break leading 48-0.
Sean Everitt's Edinburgh were more competitive in the second half and they scored three tries to add some respectability to the scoreline.
Lions wing Rabz Maxwane scored a hat-trick of tries in the game, while Bok wing Edwill van der Merwe scored a brace.
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It was a great start for the Lions with Kade Wolhuter opening the scoring with a penalty before they scored the first try of the game in the sixth minute.
It all started after a powerful run from captain Francke Horne before the ball was spread wide to Quan Horn who ran in for the five-pointer.
The Lions showed more spark on attack after that, and they found space out wide with Maxwane showing great speed to beat his man and score the second try of the game in the 14th minute.
Edinburgh tried hard to apply pressure with ball in hand, but they just couldn’t hold onto the ball.
Instead, the Lions increased their lead in the 21st minute after Van der Merwe chased and gathered the ball to score a try after a neat kick from Morne van den Berg. It all started after some great vision on attack from Wolhuter again.
Things got worse for Edinburgh in the 27th minute when Lions centre Rynhardt Jonker found acres of space in the visitors' defence to run in for the bonus-point try.
Wolhuter was having an incredible game on attack and he created the fifth try after bursting through Edinburgh's defence in his own before feeding the ball to Maxwane to score his second five-pointer in the 32nd minute.
The Lions playmaker was eventually replaced by Sanele Nohamba in the 34th minute with what looked like a lower leg injury.
There was just no stopping the Lions on attack and they scored another two tries before half-time. Captain Horn got the first and Van der Merwe got his second.
Edinburgh came out firing in the second half and they finally got onto the scoreboard in the 45th minute after Grant Gilchrist crashed over the Lions' tryline from close range.
They were in again in the 51st minute when Patrick Harrison powered over for a try after sustained pressure inside the Lions' 22.
After the Lions had Heiko Pohlmann sent to the sinbin in the 66th minute for his team's repeated infringements, Ben Muncaster scored Edinburgh's third try.
However, the home side had the final say in the game with Maxwane completing his hat-trick
The scorers:
For Lions:
Tries: Q Horn, Maxwane 3, Van der Merwe 2, Jonker, F Horn
Cons: Wolhuter 3, Van den Berg, Nohamba 2
Pen: Wolhuter
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Gilchrist, Harrison, Muncaster
Cons: Healy 2, Thompson
Yellow card: Heiko Pohlmann (Lions, 66' - repeated infringements, slowing the ball down)
Teams:
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Erich Cronje, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Jarod Cairns, 6 Johannes Pretorius, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Reinhard Nothnagel, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Juan Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Marais, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Ruben Schoeman, 20 Renzo du Plessis, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Henco van Wyk.
Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Mosese Tuipulotu, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Ross McCann, 10 Ben Healy, 9 Ben Vellacott (co-captain), 8 Magnus Bradbury, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist (co-captain), 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 Paul Hill, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Patrick Harrison, 17 Boan Venter, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Jamie Hodgson, 20 Ben Muncaster, 21 Ali Price, 22 Ross Thompson, 23 Tom Dodd.
Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: Henru van Rooyen (South Africa), Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Keith David (Wales)