The early sending-off of hooker Robbie Coetzee made little difference to the superiority of the Lions as they ran the Southern Kings ragged in a 54-10 victory at Ellis Park on Sunday to keep up their march in Super Rugby.

Last year's runners-up turned in a masterclass for a second successive week after thumping the Bulls 51-14 in their derby last week.

Johan Ackermann's side scored eight tries to one for the Kings despite having to play for 50 minutes down to 14 men.

Coetzee's red card was the only blemish on a rare Sunday afternoon Super Rugby game in Johannesburg. He kneed Chris Cronje in the side of the head in retaliation to some over robust tackling that earned Cronje a yellow card at the same time.

By that stage the Lions were 12-0 up having seen lock Andries Ferreira go over in the 11th minute from a maul and then Courtnall Skosana finish off a super move set up by Elton Jantjies' clever cross-field kick.

The Lions had to sacrifice Ferreira to allow Malcolm Marx on to replace Coetzee and he came close to being named man of the match such was his influence on the game.

Kwagga Smith did win the award, deservedly, with the first of his two tries coming on the stroke of half-time to see the Lions 19-3 ahead at the break.

Marx then showed his power in a driving maul before Smith's steal set up prop Jacques van Rooyen to put the Lions substantially ahead.

A third try in a busy 15-minute spell after the break saw Marx bursting down the line and Smith finishing off an expansive bit of running.

Luzuko Vulindlu intercepted for the Kings to get their only try on the hour-mark and they threatened their host for a spell thereafter.

But the game finished with two exciting tries, the first finished off by Faf de Klerk and the second coming from Andries Coetzee.

The fullback broke two tackles to run from some 85 metres for a spectacular finish to an afternoon of some satisfaction for the Lions, who extended their runaway conference lead.