Brumbies show Lions no mercy

Brumbies: Too strong for Lions

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The Brumbies retained their place at the top of the Aussie conference thanks to a comprehensive 34-20 win over the Lions.

The lowly Lions were no match for the men from Canberra, who outscored their hosts six tries to two in a one-sided clash at Johannesburg's Coca-Cola Park on Friday.

The scoreline actually flatters the Lions, who at one stage trailed by a whopping 28 points (6-34), only to cross for two consolation tries at the end.

Whilst Brumbies coach Jake White will be delighted with his side's fifth victory of the season, he won't be happy with his goal-kickers after Christian Lealiifano and Jesse Mogg squandered 14 points from the tee.

As for the Lions, John Mitchell's pride now head on a gruelling Australasian tour with seven consecutive defeats under their belt.

While the Australian teams have done little to stir any kind of emotion in the Super Rugby season, the Brumbies are looking like the side of old.

The Lions initially looked up to the challenge as they took a few decent stabs at the gain line and even scored the first points of the encounter thanks to a penalty by Elton Jantjies in the fifth minute.

However, Brumbies prop Ruaidhri Murphy crossed the whitewash for the first try of the evening with fly-half Lealiifano missing the conversion.

Jantjies slotted over another penalty to put his side back in the lead for the last time in the match as the Brumbies then added two more tries through Henry Speight and Andrew Smith to take their half-time score to 17-6.

Matters did not change much for the Lions in the second half as the Brumbies scored two tries within two minutes, with their bonus point try coming four minutes into the half with wing Joe Tamane and prop Benn Alexander scoring a five-pointer each (29-6).

The Lions found some spark when Mitchell sent on four replacements at once. The home side also abandoned the failed kick-and-chase tactic for a more direct approach, which seemed to work.

However, the Brumbies weren't done yet and scored one more time with Speight bagging his brace to take the visitors to a commanding 34-6 lead.

The Lions then finally broke the Brumbies defence as outside centre Jaco Taute scored his side's first try of the match, with Jantjies converting (34-13). In the lead up to the try, Butch James was sent off with a yellow card for a shoulder charge into a ruck.

As the match wound down, the Lions scored the final try of the match as prop Caylib Oosthuizen powered his way over the line in the 78th minute.

The scorers:

For Lions:
Tries: Taute, Oosthuizen
Cons: Jantjies 2
Pens: Jantjies 2

For Brumbies
Tries: Murphy, Speight 2, Smith, Tomane, Alexander
Cons: Mogg, Lealifano

Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Deon van Rensburg, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Alwyn Hollenbach, 11 Lionel Mapoe, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Joshua Strauss (c), 7 Derick Minnie, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Hendrik Roodt, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Caylib Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Jacobie Adriaanse, 18 Grant Hattingh, 19 Christo le Roux, 20 Ross Cronje, 21 Butch James, 22 Michael Killian.

Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Andrew Smith, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Fotu Auelua, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Peter Kimlin, 5 Leon Power, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 1 Ruaidhri Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Anthony Hegarty, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Sam Carter, 19 Ita Vaea, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Robbie Coleman, 22 Tevita Kuridrani.

Referee: Keith Brown (New Zealand)