The Lions are keeping their feet firmly on the ground as they prepare to complete the Vodacom URC regular season with an Irish triple header.
Coach Ivan van Rooyen’s men are in uncharted waters, lying fourth on the log after winning their last five matches. They have never been in such an elevated position at this stage of the campaign and it has given them a golden opportunity of reaching the playoffs for the first time.
But Van Rooyen is well aware of the size of the obstacles that stand in their way.
First up, this Saturday, they play hosts to Connacht, who are on an even longer winning run in the league after six straight victories. Then they head off to Ireland to take on two more playoff contenders, Leinster and Munster, in Dublin and Limerick respectively.
“The moment you preview these teams, it gets you humble really quickly,” said Van Rooyen. “Connacht beat the Stormers in Cape Town last weekend. They are a desperate team that pride themselves on hard work. Then we’ve got Leinster and Munster away, so there’s no reason not to have your feet on the ground.”
While the Lions are staying humble, there is no doubting the strides they have made. Last season, they finished 11th in the URC on 40 points, with eight victories from 18 matches. With three games still to play, they have already surpassed that this term, having won nine and drawn one for a tally of 48.
They have also scored more points than any other team (475), while they are joint top for tries alongside the Vodacom Bulls with 65, demonstrating their attacking potency.
On top of that, they have the league’s leading point-scorer in flyhalf Chris Smith (135), while fullback Quan Horn is third for metres gained (734) and flanker Ruan Venter is in the top five for carries (155).
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So, just what does Van Rooyen put the obvious advances his team has made down to?
“It’s probably just consistency, an alignment in what we want to do, what does it look like and what does it take,” he said. “The clearer you are about what you want to do and your identity, the easier it is.
“A lot of the time, you want to look at the outcome, but you must look at the process and what made the difference or what had the effect. I think the coaches and the players are really aligned about what we want and what we need.
“The players have also got more experience now.”
He added: “I am extremely proud of the hard work and effort. It’s our last home game coming up in Johannesburg against Connacht now. Hopefully we can make our supporters proud.”
Adding his thoughts on why the Lions have performed so well this season, skipper Francke Horn said: “We are sticking to our structures, we are not getting individual, we play as a team and hopefully the people out there can see we have a really strong bond. We are playing together, we play off each other’s shoulders and are just working really hard for one another.”
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The Lions produced their most eye-catching display of the season last weekend when they scored eight tries in beating league leaders the Glasgow Warriors 54-12 at Ellis Park.
“What an unbelievable performance. Credit to the guys,” said No 8 Horn. “Sometimes you look at all the beautiful tries and you forget the hard work the boys put in to be solid on defence and to secure the ball and then on turnover ball to be sure you are next to the other guy to give the other guys tries.”
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There were some outstanding individual performances against Glasgow, with Venter making more carries (20) than any other player in the round and winger Erich Cronje topping both the tackle and turnover count.
There was also a try double for centre Henco van Wyk, who said: “We’ve worked hard over the past couple of weeks and it paid off. We play smart rugby. One of our focus points is starting well to set us up for the rest of the game. Then, when we are ahead, we still stick to our structures. We keep it simple and just focus on ourselves.”
Now it’s on to the crucial Joburg clash with Connacht as the URC’s two in-form teams go head to head.
“This is our last home game, so hopefully people will come out with their friends and family and let’s make it a big one,” said Horn. “We really appreciate the support.”
Photo: Daniel Hlongwane/Gallo Images
The post Lions ready to run Irish gauntlet appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
The Lions are keeping their feet firmly on the ground as they prepare to complete the Vodacom URC regular season with an Irish triple header.
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