Lions scrumhalf Morne van den Berg celebrated his 100th game for the franchise by getting on the scoresheet against Edinburgh.
Image: Backpapepix
The Lions delivered an astonishing display of attacking rugby to obliterate Edinburgh 54-17 at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon, making the most of almost every opportunity to score they received.
Incredibly, the home team had only one-third of possession, but through sheer enterprise when they had the ball, outscored the visitors by eight tries to three.
The Scots started brightly and troubled the Lions with their slick offloading game, but the Lions broke out spectacularly in the sixth minute when Francke Horn was put through a gap inside his half.
He sped 40m before offloading to Ruan Venter, who galloped to the posts. Venter was in the No. 4 jersey for this match, a position in which Bok coach Rassie Erasmus believes he has a future, and Venter came to the party with a storming performance. Horn also had a big game, including a massive clearance from the Lions' 22 to the Edinburgh dead-ball area.
The Edinburgh scrum, including South Africans Boan Venter and Dylan Richardson in the front row, gave the Lions a hard time, but again the Lions absorbed pressure and went to the other end of the field to score; this time captain Horn was propelled over from a rapidly advancing maul.
From the restart, the on-fire Lions swept upfield until lanky lock Darrien Landsberg was in the clear, and he will dine out on how he outpaced the Edinburgh chasers for a memorable score.
The relentless attacking continued, with the bonus-point try landed in the 25th minute. Fittingly, the try went to Lions centurion Morne van den Berg, who was set up beautifully by half-back partner Chris Smith.
It was 28-0, and the Lions were outscoring the clock. The Scots stemmed the tide and finished the half on deep attack, with Horn being sin-binned for a deliberate slap-down when it looked accidental.
The half finished extraordinarily — Edinburgh had been camping on the Lions’ line but were eventually penalised. Instead of kicking the ball out, the Lions took a tap penalty and 95m of thrilling attack later, Bronson Mills scored. If that didn’t break the Edinburgh spirit, nothing would.
And what do you know, Edinburgh scored first in the second half, a maul try for replacement hooker Ewan Ashman. The Scots were on the board in the 50th minute at 35-5.
They were straight back on the attack, threatening the Lions' line, but once more the Lions brilliantly turned defence into attack, sweeping upfield until Smith deftly kicked to the openside touchline for Angelo Davids to catch and score. Smith nailed his sixth consecutive conversion for a 42-5 lead.
The Scots kept fighting, and Charlie Shiel scored off the back of a maul, before Davids snatched a second when he cheekily gathered the ball under the noses of the Scottish defenders after a kick through.
Edinburgh centre Matt Currie scored after 20 phases to give his team a shot at a try-scoring bonus point as the match entered the final ten minutes. The final say went to Lions replacement scrum-half Haashim Pead, who darted over from close quarters.
Scorers
Lions - Tries: Ruan Venter, Francke Horn, Darrien Landsberg, Morne van den Berg, Bronson Mills, Angelo Davids (2), Haashim Pead. Conversions: Chris Smith (7).
Edinburgh - Tries: Ewan Ashman, Charlie Shiel, Matt Currie. Conversion: Cammy Scott.