Lions cruise to ten-try triumph in Johannesburg
Roberts scored two tries for the Britsih Lions in Johannesburg
Also In The News
|
Manchester City have confirmed the signing of Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry for a fee of £12 million. |  |
Wednesday, 03, Jun 2009 10:39
The British and Irish Lions comfortably won their second match of the tour of South Africa with a 74-10 victory over the Golden Lions in Johannesburg.
Having scrapped through their opening match against the Royal XV on Saturday, Ian McGeechan's side gave a real signal of intent to their Springbok opponents with a crushing win against the Golden Lions.
The centre pairing of captain Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts were at the heart of the British Lions' performance, while the forwards dominated the breakdown area.
The tourists scored two tries in the first ten minutes to give themselves a cushion that they never relinquished.
Roberts touched down for the first having been released by O'Driscoll. The Irishman danced past two tacklers before feeding Roberts for the score.
O'Driscoll scored the second soon after. A neat back move used Roberts as a decoy runner before Tommy Bowe offloaded to his Irish counterpart for the try.
Stephen Jones added a penalty to make it 17-0 before Andre Pretorious got the home side on the scoreboard with a penalty of his own.
Jones struck another penalty before another two quick tries from the Lions. Bowe was again the man to give the final pass as first Ugo Monye dived in for his first try and then Tom Croft streaked through the Golden Lions defence.
Just before the break the home side crossed the whitewash. The Lions defence rushed up allowing replacement full-back Shandre Frolick plenty of space on the wing to touch down.
Roberts made it 39-10 at half-time as he finished off another powerful move by the British Lions forwards.
Although the Golden Lions showed more resolve in the second-half the amount of tackles they had made during the match caught up with them, allowing the tourists to add to the scoreline.
Bowe turned from provider to finisher, grabbing a brace in the second period. His first came when Jones' creativity allowed him to score in the corner, while the second was from his own interception.
Monye and substitute James Hook both profited from flat defending to score in the final ten minutes before replacement flanker Stephen Ferris stole the ball on the final play of the game, running 70 metres to score under the posts.
The Lions' will hope to maintain the momentum they have created in this match in their next encounter on Saturday against the Cheetahs.