The Lions have turned their attention to Saturday’s Jukskei derby against the Vodacom Bulls at Ellis Park after a demanding overseas tour that produced two draws.
The Joburg-based side missed out on the EPCR Challenge Cup playoffs after a 20-20 stalemate in Perpignan and had to settle for a 24-24 draw against the Ospreys in the URC on Friday night.
With travel, weather and tight turnarounds shaping the past fortnight, coach Ivan van Rooyen said the immediate priority is recovery before switching attention to a “really tough game” against one of their biggest rivals.
“It’s been a tough 24-hour travel back,” he said on Sunday. “We arrived this morning at 1 o’clock. There is a mental freshness and physical freshness that we want to drive today, Monday, Tuesday and then get up for a really tough game against the Bulls this weekend.”
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The Lions emerged from Bridgend with three log points after crossing for four tries, which kept them seventh on the log, but Van Rooyen admitted there was frustration at not taking full advantage in testing conditions.
“We’ll take the three points. We wanted four and we scored four tries so it could have been five, so we are disappointed in that sense,” he said.
Van Rooyen pointed to decision-making and the penalty count in the second half as a decisive factor, particularly against an Ospreys side adept at applying pressure through territory.
“I think that the difference between three points and five points was the discipline in the second half. Too many penalties, which is the Ospreys’ strength, is to trap you and to catch you off guard,” he said.
Despite that, the Lions coach was encouraged by the resilience shown across a difficult tour.
“It’s obviously been a tough two weeks in terms of travel and weather but as a squad we want to embrace the tough times,” Van Rooyen said. “In circumstances like that, you can actually reveal who you are and what you are. So really proud of the effort, proud of the toughness.”
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Attention now shifts to the Bulls, who claimed back-to-back wins in Europe.
“This is a big week for us. We are excited to play against a Bulls team that has found a bit of form again,” Van Rooyen said.
On the injury front, the coach confirmed there are “a few niggles”.
“Hopefully not too serious,” he added. “We’ll know more about Francke [Horn, who left the field in the second half] on Monday afternoon. But we’ve not foreseen anything too hectic at this stage.”
Photo: Chris Fairweather/Gallo Images
