Seven tries, 50 points and a near flawless kicking display from Beauden Barrett will grab the headlines, but the Hurricanes were celebrating their defence after a bonus point win over the Lions in Johannesburg.

The Hurricanes 50-17 win was their highest score and biggest winning margin over the Lions in 18 previous meetings with the South African club.

It extended their season record to six wins from nine matches and kept them firmly in the top eight on the Investec Super Rugby table, third in the New Zealand Conference and just one point behind the Crusaders.

Wings Julian Savea and Cory Jane both grabbed a brace of tries, while centre Matt Proctor, prop Reggie Goodes, and midfielder Vince Aso also crossed the tryline, the seven try tally topping the six the Hurricanes scored against the Lions in Johannesburg in 2005.

Jane said players were given a "kick up the bum" after reviewing their one point loss to the Chiefs last Saturday in Wellington and head coach Chris Boyd said the response against the Lions had been pleasing.

"The area that we were very unhappy about last week was the sting in our defence and...for this week we put a lot of emphasis on our line speed and our physicality," Boyd said. "They've got a lot of big ball runners so we thought the best way to combat that was to attack the ball at source and slow it down and we were able to do both of those, so we were particularly happy with that."

The Hurricanes led 36-5 by halftime and though there was a flat patch after halftime, Boyd was happy with the overall application and the result.

"If you'd have said to me [we'll offer you] 50 points to 17 with a bonus point at Ellis Park against the Lions I would've said 'we don't need to play that game, I'll take that," he said.

Notably Jane and Proctor both grabbed intercept tries off the back of the collective defensive pressure the Hurricanes put on the Lions, while other tries came from turnovers created by the work of players like Ardie Savea, Victor Vito, Michael Fatialofa and Goodes at the breakdown.

"The times that we've played well this year is the times we've been on the same page defensively and we've been able to get teams and chop them to the ground and bring the next wave and really shut their space down and put them under pressure," Jane said.

"The times when we've been a bit sloppy - Chiefs, Brumbies at the beginning of the year - we kind of got confused about what we wanted to do. Whether we wanted to push or jam and people weren't on the same page and if you're not on the same page teams are going to cut you apart."

The Hurricanes first try to Julian Savea was a result of brilliant ball movement as the Hurricanes pounced on a Lions turnover to sweep down field and Proctor's intercept try made it 14-0 in as many minutes.

Jane scored from a nice inside pass from Barrett and had a double before halftime when he leapt up to grab an intercept of his own to make it 31-5, but it was Goodes who provided the match highlight just before the break.

The big South African born loose showed off his pace with a dash down the touch line before athletically leaping over the final defenders to plant the ball in the corner and give his side a 36-5 halftime lead.

The Lions hit back after halftime as they threw everything into an unlikely comeback, but the Hurricanes stood their ground and added tries to Savea and Aso before fulltime.

Aso scored after Fatialofa grabbed a turnover and hooker Dane Coles showed his freakish pace to create space then off load to his lock, while Savea benefitted from scrum's dominant display after replacement halfback Jamison Gibson-Park had broke down the blindside.

Goodes, locks Fatialofa and Vaea Fifita and a loose trio led by Ardie Savea and Victor Vito ensured the Hurricanes enjoyed ascendancy at the breakdown and though the Lions had the majority of possession, they found as tough with the ball as without.

Immediately after the match, the Hurricanes players were already thinking of how they can improve further against the Sharks in Durban next Sunday.

"The one disappointing aspect of that game was the 20, 25 minutes after halftime where it was 30-odd to 10, or whatever the score was, was a chance for a good team to put the foot on the throat and really dominate and we didn't do that," said Jane.

"We kind of lacked a little bit of energy and they came back like we knew that they would, so that was kind of disappointing. But the last 10, 15 we got back that form we were playing with in the first half and really got up into their faces and brought the energy again."

Scorers:

Hurricanes 50 (Julian Savea 2, Cory Jane 2, Matt Proctor, Reggie Goodes, Vince Aso tries; Beauden Barrett 6 con, pen) Lions 17 (Akker van der Merwe, Lionel Mapoe, Jaco Kriel tries; Elton Jantjies con). HT: 36-5