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Lions emphatically thump Bulls

Pretoria - The Golden Lions demolished the Blue Bulls 62-23 in their Currie Cup encounter at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The visitors ran in eight tries to the three of the Bulls, while Lions flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff also played a central role with a 100 percent kicking record converting all eight tries and slotting over two more penalties.

After last weekend’s snore fest against Griquas, the Loftus faithful was treated to an action-packed Jukskei Derby in the Capital City.

The scoreboard ticked over for the first time four minutes after the start and continued do that almost every five minutes.

Bulls flyhalf Tony Jantjies opened the scoring with a penalty conversion, while his opposite number Boshoff replied with a penalty goal two minutes later.

The hosts again made the first move in terms of crossing the whitewash when Travis Ismail scored in the left-hand corner after a good passage of play, with Jantjies missing the conversion.

Five minutes later the Lions responded with a devastating driving maul from a lineout with Jaco Kriel scoring from the back.

In a typical tit-for-tat battle, it was the turn of the Bulls to cross the line, with fullback Jurgen Visser adding a five-pointer, but failing to convert his own try.

Just before the half-hour the Lions trailed by three points before flanker Willie Britz picked up a fumbled Bulls ball and showed a burst of speed to advance to within five metres of the line with Deon Helberg fielding to go over the line.

Visser brought his side within a point of the Lions before Boshoff had the last say of the half with a penalty conversion to give his side a four-point lead going into the break.

The Bulls made an encouraging start to the second half thanks to a superb break by Clayton Blommetjies, who gave a well-weighted pass to Francois Venter for the score, with Visser converting.

The game, however, swung in the Lions’ favour when Bulls prop Morné Mellett was given a yellow card in the 49th minute for a repeated offence.

A minute later Man-of-the-Match Britz scored his second try of the match after another rolling maul by the Lions.

Lions captain Derick Minnie scored his side’s bonus-point try four minutes later after some great interplay between Anthony Volmink and Britz.

The rampage continued unabated as the Bulls could not plug the holes with Minnie adding his second five-pointer in the 59th minute, while Volmink broke the Bulls’ spirit with an intercept try seven minutes later.

The Bulls’ suffering was far from over as the Lions added two more tries with Warwick Tecklenburg adding his name to the scorers, while Volmink gave up his second try to Elton Jantjies bringing their try fest to an end four minutes from time.

Scorers:


Blue Bulls:

Tries: Travis Ismaiel, Jurgen Visser, Francois Venter

Conversion: Visser

Penalties: Tony Jantjies, Visser

Golden Lions:

Tries: Jaco Kriel, Deon Helberg, Willie Britz, Derick Minnie (2), Anthony Volmink, Warwick Tecklenburg, Elton Jantjies

Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (8)

Penalties: Boshoff (2)

Teams:

Blue Bulls:

15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 Ulrich Beyers, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Travis Ismaiel, 10 Tony Jantjies, 9 Ruan Snyman, 8 Jono Ross (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Wiaan Liebenberg, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 1 Morné Mellett

Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Marcel van der Merwe, 18 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Waylon Murray, 22 Clayton Blommetjies

Golden Lions:

15 Chrysander Botha 14 Deon Helberg 13 Robert De Bruyn 12 Dylan Des Fountain 11 Anthony Volmink 10 Marnitz Boshoff 9 Guy Cronje 8 Willie Britz 7 Derick Minnie (captain) 6 Jaco Kriel 5 Franco van der Merwe 4 Chris van Zyl 3 Ruan Dreyer 2 Willie Wepener 1 Jacques Van Rooyen

Substitutes: 16 Robbie Coetzee 17 CJ van der Linde 18 Lambert Groenewald 19 Warwick Tecklenburg 20 Tiaan Meyer 21 Elton Jantjies 22 Lionel Cronje
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