Skosan stars as Lions smash Reds 44-14

The Lions withstood heavy early pressure from a fired-up Reds team but their defence held, and when then the Lions fought their way  into the Reds’ danger zone in the 10th minute, flank Jaco Kriel was, in turn, held up by fierce defence from the Queenslanders.

The home team then exerted 10 minutes of their own pressure and eventually a strong scrum resulted in a platform for flyhalf Elton Jantjies to work centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg into a position to put Skosan in for  the opening try.

Five minutes later Ruan Ackermann was adjudged by the TMO to have knocked on in the act of scoring as the Lions continued their pressure. The Lions were unrelenting in their dominance of the Reds’ 22 and kicked a succession of penalties to the corner, only to make errors and concede penalties to leave the score at 7-0 at the half hour mark.

Eventually the Lions elected to go for the points when Jantjies kicked a penalty seven minutes before half time for a 10-0 advantage.

Three minutes before the break, the Lions kicked a penalty to the corner and were handsomely rewarded when Kriel went over off the back of a maul. The conversion was missed but the Lions were in a good position at 15-0 up.  

The Lions were ferocious in their intent after half-time and five minutes of heavy pressure saw Jantjies work Van Rensburg over for a bulldozing try, despite Reds flyhalf Quade Cooper hanging around his neck.

Cooper was red carded as a result to compound his side’s woes.

The Reds were starting to struggle and the Lions sensed blood in the water and cranked up their intensity, with hooker Malcolm Marx scoring the bonus point try in the 50th minute. Again Jantjies was off target with his conversion.

As the game hit the three-quarter mark, the Lions worked the ball through the hands after strong pressure to see Skosan in for his second try, and the fifth for his team. This time Jantjies was on target with his conversion and the Lions were out of touch at 32-0.

Skosan’s hat –trick try was brilliant. Inside his 22 he smashed a kick up-field and chased it some 50m before gathering the bounce and cantering home for the try. Andries Coetzee converted for a 37-0 lead.

With 10 minutes to go, there was a consolation try for the visitors when fullback Karmichael Hunt made the running for a try for centre Duncan Paia’aua, but none other than Skosan had the final say  for the home team with his fourth try, five minutes before time.

Coetzee missed the conversion which meant eight points had gone begging from conversion attempts.

The reds added a semblance of respectability to the score when replacement flank Taniela Tupou scored at the death.

Scorers: Lions 44 (15): Tries: Courtnall Skosan (4),Jaco Kriel, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Malcom Marx . Conversions: Elton Jantjies (2), Andries Coetzee . Penalties: Elton Jantjies. (1)

Reds 0 (14): Tries: Duncan Paia’aua,Taniela Tupou. Conversions: Jake McIntyre (2).