Coastal Sharks made their Super 14 southern hemisphere championship intentions clear on Saturday when they scored a comfortable 25-10 win over the Golden Lions.

The home side, among the title favourites this season, ran in three tries to one after leading 8-3 at half-time in the all-South Africa affair.

It was the Durban-based side's second straight win after beating the Western Stormers 20-15 in Cape Town last weekend while defeat for the Lions follows a home win over the Central Cheetahs a week ago.

But the failure for the second consecutive week to score four tries and secure a bonus point will concern Sharks New Zealand-born coach John Plumtree.

The eight points earned by the men in black means they occupy fourth place on the table, two behind the leaders Northern Bulls, and the Lions lie 10th with five points.

Despite dominating the early exchanges by winning most of the set-piece and breakdown ball, the Sharks suffered a setback when the visitors took the lead on 15 minutes through a drop goal from fly-half Earl Rose.

Soon after the home side scored their first try through loose-head prop Deon Carstens, who found himself wide on the left to run in the score after Springbok Frans Steyn made the initial midfield break.

The conversion by Ruan Pienaar was wide but six minutes from the interval the Sharks No.10 made amends by slotting a penalty to hand his side an 8-3 advantage.

The first blow of the second half was struck by the Lions when veteran wing Ashwin Willemse rounded off a well-worked move.

Lock Gerhard Mostert made the initial break through the Sharks defence and when his charge to the line was halted, Willemse took the ball over the line.

A Rose conversion made it 10-8 in favour of the visitors but just a few minutes later the star-studded home side were back in front when a turnover allowed the 2007 runners-up to run in a long-distance try.

Sharks scrum-half Rory Kockott sent centre Adrian Jacobs away down the left touchline and when he ran out of room, passed the ball inside for flying JP Pietersen to touch down behind the posts.

Kockott added the extra points to give his side a 15-10 lead with more than a quarter of the match left and a few minutes later he was on the scoreboard again when he knocked over a further penalty.

The Sharks then extended their lead with a third try through Springbok number eight Ryan Kankowski which Kockott converted to complete the scoring.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP