Lions left feeling the Blues
The Blues heaped more misery on the Lions with a comprehensive 36-10 victory at Eden Park.
Last Updated: 10/04/09 11:59am
The Blues heaped more misery on the Lions with a comprehensive 36-10 victory in their Super 14 encounter at Eden Park.
Wing Rudi Wulf crossed for two of the home side's six tries to seal a bonus-point win which keeps their semi-final hopes alive.
Chris Smylie, Anthony Tuitavake, Joe Rokocoko and Peter Saili also crossed the whitewash to condemn the Lions to their sixth Super 14 defeat of the season.
The visitors were starved of possession all day and rarely threatened the scoreboard operators until a brief late surge saw Hennie Mentz and Jano Vermaak dive over.
Smylie kicked off the scoring after 13 minutes when he ghosted over from the back of the ruck. The hosts domination continued and Isaia Toeava had two conversions to his name after Tuitavake added a second before the half hour.
Magnificent
The hosts took their 14-0 lead into the interval and two quickfire tries at the start of the second half gave the Blues their bonus point.
First Wulf dived onto Toeava's grubber, then Rokocoko finished off superbly in the right-hand corner. Toeava hit the woodwork with both conversions.
A brief moment of Earl Rose magic got the Lions on the board when his chip and pick-up spilt the Blues defence before offloading to Mentz who scorched home.
That merely sparked life back into the Blues. Wulf pounced after Andre Pretorius' clearance had been charged down by Tasesa Lavea and Toeava converted again.
Saili crashed over with seven minutes remaining following some magnificent handling down the right from the Blues before Vermaak had the last say in the dying seconds.
