Lions mauled by Cheetahs
The Lions became the first team in Super Rugby history to fail to win a game in a season after losing 59-10 to the Cheetahs.
Last Updated: 15/05/10 4:39pm
The Lions became the first team in Super Rugby history to fail to win a single game in a season after going down 59-10 to the Cheetahs in Welkom.
It was one-way traffic from start to finish as the Cheetahs entertained the crowd by giving the ball plenty of air and scoring nine tries.
Their impressive triumph on Saturday means they move above the Chiefs and caps off their best ever Super 14 season.
It took the Cheetahs less than twenty minutes to secure a four-try bonus point as the sorry Lions once again became easy prey for their opponents.
As has becomes costumery in Lions games this season, the scoreboard was ticking early as Bjorn Basson touched down after just five minutes when he collected his own chip ahead while flying along the touch line.
Mauling Cheetahs
Five minutes later the hosts were over the line again, this time in a pile of bodies as the Cheetahs mauled their way to five more points from a line-out.
Scrum-half Sarel Pretorius was awarded the try by the TMO and Naas Olivier added the conversion to extend the lead to 12-0.
Visiting fly-half Herkie Kruger pulled back three points from the kicking tee, but before long both Pretorius and Basson had each scored their second try.
Pretorius sniped through a gap on the fringe of a ruck from short range, while Basson used his pace to coast over. Olivier's successful conversions took the score to 26-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Barend Pieterse was next to crash over as the Lions defence ran out of numbers before Corne Uys added his name to the score sheet just before half time when he ran in on an angle to collect Olivier's pass and bust through.
The Lions would have been relieved to hear the half-time whistle with score reading 38-3, though they finally managed to score a try when replacement Michael Killian picked up a loose ball and trotted under the posts untouched.
It didn't take long for the Free Staters to get back into the swing of things, however, and Hennie Daniller scored twice in the space of ten minutes to send the Cheetahs past the 50-point barrier.
In the dying minutes Coenie Oosthuizen bashed his way over the line for the ninth Cheetahs try and give them a superior points difference to last year's finalists, the Chiefs.
