The Emirates Lions were brilliant against Zebre Parma in Johannesburg, scoring eight tries to the three of their visitors. The Emirates Lions deservedly won 61-19.
The Lions were superb in the first 40 minutes of the match scoring 5 tries to lead a shell-shocked Zebre 33-07 at the halftime break. The second half lost most of its structure with both teams spreading the ball wide at every opportunity.
The Lions made a confident start to the match and dominated the early exchanges. Richard Kriel scored an easy try running a superb line to open the scoring for the host after 4 minutes of play. The Lions attacked from a clever move from the back of a lineout, distributing the ball quickly to Kriel who had an easy run to score.
Four minutes later Edwill van der Merwe pounced on a grubber by Francke Horn to score the Lions' second try and extend their lead to 12-00.
Another piece of brilliance by Francke Horn led to him scoring the Lions' 3rd try when Horn soccer style dribbled the ball 50m and fell on the ball to extend the Lions' lead to 19-00 and still 25 minutes to play in the first half.
Brilliant stepping by Quan Horn led to the Lions' 4th and bonus point try to extend the Lions' lead to 26-00 and 10 minutes left to play in the first half.
With 5 minutes still to play Zebre spread the ball wide from a scrum on the hosts' 5m to send Simone Gesi over in the corner. However, the Lions struck back almost immediately with a try by Henco van Wyk to go into the second half leading 33-07.
Zebre struck first in the second half when winger Simone Gesi, controlled a grubber to stroll over for his second try of the match. The Lions led 33-14 with 35 minutes to play in the match.
Henco van Wyk showed his class when he scored the Lions' 6th try when he burst through a tackle and then stepped past two more defenders to run 25 meters for his second try of the match, to extend the Lions' lead to 40-14 and 30 minutes to play in the second half.
Thereafter defence took the backseat as the teams started to score tries almost at will. The Lions deservedly won 61-19.
Scorers:
Emirates Lions: Tries: Richard Kriel, Edwill van der Merwe (2), Francke Horn, Quan Horn, Henco van Wyk (2), Morne van den Berg, Emmanuel Tshituka. Conversions: Sanele Nohamba (7), Willem Alberts.
Zebre Parma: Tries: Simone Gesi (2), Jacopo Trulla. Conversions: Giovanni Montemauri (2).
Teams:
Emirates Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw (c), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sanele Nohamba, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Emmanuel Tshituka, 5 Ruben Schoeman, 4 Ruan Delport, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Hanru Sirgel, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Jordan Hendrikse, 23 Rabz Maxwane.
Zebre: 15 Lorenzo Pani, 14 Scott Gregory, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Franco Smith Jr, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 8 Giovanni Licata (c), 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Giacomo Ferrari, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Leonard Krumov, 3 Juan Pitinari, 2 Marco Manfredi, 1 Danilo Fischetti. Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Matteo Nocera, 19 Guido Volpi, 20 Taina Fox-Matamua, 21 Thomas Dominguez, 22 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23 Jacopo Trulla.
