The New South Wales Waratahs scored a 41-13 bonus-point win over South Africa’s Golden Lions in Sydney on Sunday to maintain their push for a Super Rugby play-off.
The Waratahs scored five tries to one, with a double to winger Rob Horne, as they kept the Lions scoreless in the second half after leading 17-13 at half-time.
The five points took the Waratahs to fourth place overall behind competition leaders Coastal Sharks, and within one point of the ACT Brumbies at the top of the Australia conference.
While it was an emphatic victory for Michael Cheika’s Waratahs, it was a messy performance with a total of 27 turnovers, 14 of them handling errors.
Fly-half Bernard Foley had an impressive match ahead of this week’s Wallaby squad selection for the three home French Tests. He scored a total of 21 points from a try, five conversions and two penalties out of his seven shots at goal.
The Lions had looked to be well in the match after a try by blindside flanker Jaco Kriel off a rolling maul in the 13th minute and steady goalkicking from fly-half Marnitz Boshoff.
But the Waratahs stormed away from the Johannesburg-based outfit in the 10 minutes after the resumption with tries to Horne and Wallaby centre Adam Ashley-Cooper to kill off the game with a 31-13 lead.
Horne scored his second try after the full-time siren after Wallaby fullback Israel Folau went close to scoring.
The result continued the Lions’ losing run on their Australasian tour with three losses before their final tour game against the Western Force in Perth next Saturday.
The Lions, formerly the Golden Cats, have not won in 10 trips to Sydney and have only beaten the Waratahs twice in 17 encounters.
“We started the first half with a lot of intent but it probably got a bit loose in that last 30 minutes with a bit too many turnovers, but overall a pleasing result,” said Waratahs skipper Dave Dennis.
“We knew the Lions were strong finishers, they’ve proven that over the last couple of weeks and it was crucial that we started the second half well and to put them out of the game was a good result.”
Lions captain Warren Whiteley rued a disappointing result, with his team seemingly unable to play out a full 80 minutes.
“The previous week it was the second 40 minutes that we performed well and this week in the first half we were in it. But a great performance from the Waratahs, especially in the second half,” he said.
The Waratahs have just a five-day turnaround before facing the Rebels in Melbourne.
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