Lions give Jaco Kriel fitting send-off with 50-point clouting of winless Zebre

At Loftus Versfeld

The Lions gave Jaco Kriel the most deserved of valedictories when they breezed past Zebre 50-35 in their final United Rugby Championship game of the season on Saturday afternoon.

The 33-year-old Kriel, born in Standerton, even had the honour of scoring in his final professional game as his body has finally given up on him.

He's written so many cheques his body has cashed for the franchise, but they increasingly bounced, something that reflected in the team's results in the past two seasons.

However, Kriel, who was capped 11 times for the Boks between 2016 and 2017 during Allister Coetzee's difficult stewardship, will at least remember this occasion fondly.

It also gave what was a meaningless fixture some context, with the Lions giving the winless Zebre an 18th consecutive defeat this season while collecting the ninth victory of a campaign that promised so much.

Yet in true Lions fashion, it delivered so little.

The game had all the makings of an end-of-season game with nothing to be gained for both teams.

Having flushed away what remained of their quarterfinal chances when they lost to a third-string Leinster side, the Lions at least looked like they were enjoying the rare occasion of a home game at Loftus.

The ground was as empty for the Lions game as it was for the Bulls encounter against the selfsame Zebre at Ellis Park last week, but there was as much entertainment.

However, where the Bulls offered a lot in defence, these two teams were happy to trade tries like two heavyweight boxers landing punches.

There were eight of them alone in the first half, with Zebre winger Simone Gesi rolling on a hat-trick after scoring the game's first try in the first minute.

He shocked the Lions into life with that score,