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Johannesburg - Western Province annihilated the Golden Lions in their Currie Cup clash at Ellis Park on Saturday.
As it happened: Golden Lions v WP
The defending champions won 65-38, after leading 39-10 at half-time.
The visitors ran in nine tries, with the hosts managing five.
It was the away side who opened the scoring after just 90 seconds. Juarno Augustus got the offload away while falling to the floor for Ruhan Nel, who broke the line and played the inside pass for Dillyn Leyds. The Springbok fullback still had plenty to do and showed good stepping skills to cut back on the inside and saunter in under the posts. SP Marais added the extras.
Soon afterwards, Marais extended the lead to 10-0 with a penalty with the visitors dominating the early exchanges. However, the Golden Lions hit back five minutes later, James Venter crashing over after a brilliant barnstorming run by Lions hooker Corne Fourie in the build-up, with Reynolds slotting the conversion.
Marais' 12th minute penalty made it 13-7 before a brilliant give-and-go between Leyds and Sergeal Petersen ensured the former went over for his second try as Marais added the extras for a 20-7 lead with a quarter of an hour gone.
WP were beginning to turn on the style and scored two tries in quick succession when Petersen intercepted Lionel Mapoe's pass to run away for the score and then Josh Stander finished off a move started with a brilliant break from replacement scrumhalf Paul de Wet.
Five minutes before the interval, Marais got himself on the try column when he was on the receiving end of a well-judged Stander cross-field kick as the visitors took a 39-10 lead into the interval.
The hosts bossed the beginning of the second half and were awarded a penalty try after WP flank Ernst van Rhyn was yellow-carded for cynically bringing down the lineout driving maul.
But despite their numerical disadvantage, the visitors immediately hit back with two tries. After good go forward ball from the scrum, they went to the blindside as Augustus went over with the pick and go. Then, JD Schickerling powered himself over.
However, it was now the Lions' chance to score two quickfire tries. First, replacement hooker Pieter Jansen went over followed by Hajcivah Dayimani going top of the Currie Cup try-scorers' list with his 67th minute score making it 51-31.
Eight minutes from fulltime, Petersen got in on the act with his side's eighth score of the afternoon, before Dan du Plessis rubbed salt in the wounds three minutes later after good work in the build up by Leyds.
But it was Golden Lions' flank Len Massyn who had the last laugh when he dotted down seconds before the hooter, but it was a mere consolation as the home side succumbed to a disappointing defeat.
Scorers:
Golden Lions
Tries: James Venter, penalty try, Pieter Jansen, Hacjivah Dayimani, Len Massyn
Conversions: Shaun Reynolds (4)
Penalty: Reynolds
Western Province
Tries: Dillyn Leyds (2), Sergeal Petersen (2), Josh Stander, SP Marais, Juarno Augustus, JD Schickerling, Dan du Plessis
Conversions: Marais (7)
Penalties: Marais (2)
Teams:
Golden Lions
15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Shaun Reynolds, 9 Dillon Smit, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Len Massyn, 6 James Venter, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Rhyno Herbst, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Corne Fourie, 1 Sti Sithole
Substitutes: 16 Pieter Jansen, 17 Johannes Jonker, 18 Reinhard Nothnagel, 19 Driaan Bester, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Gianni Lombard, 22 Wandisile Simelane
Western Province
15 Dillyn Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 SP Marais, 10 Josh Stander, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Kobus van Dyk, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Chris van Zyl (captain), 3 Michael Kumbirai, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Ali Vermaak
Substitutes: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Caylib Oosthuizen, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Chris Massyn, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Dan du Plessis
