‘Bad stuff’ out the way, Lions excited about second chance against Bulls

A reset Lions team is hungry to tackle the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus on Saturday (kickoff 3pm), as they look to flip the script after a disappointing loss against them last weekend.

It was a desperately poor showing at Ellis Park, with it emerging afterwards that the team had gone into the game with a very poor mindset, which has been the main focus in training over the past week.

“We had a good honest meeting at the start of the week which was well received by the team and we have had a great reaction from them,” explained Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“It’s been a good training week and I think we are ready and looking forward to the coming game against the Bulls.”

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Lions stand-in captain Jaco Kriel, who has stepped into the role after Burger Odendaal was ruled out due to concussion, echoed his coach’s statement while admitting the team was excited to get a second chance against the Bulls.

“We had an honest review on Monday to get all of the bad stuff out of the way, which was good so that we could start focussing on the weekend and the challenges that lie ahead,” said Kriel.

“We are fortunate enough to get a second chance at the same opposition, so there is not a lot that we have changed. We have just been working hard on our game plan and how to implement it better.

“The coaches were honest with us and the players accepted it as it is and that’s professional sport; some you win and some you lose.”

Team changes

The Lions have made a number of changes to their starting line-up, mostly in the backline where only Andre Warner and Edwill van der Merwe keep their places from the defeat against the Bulls last weekend, with Van Rooyen explaining that they are mostly rotational changes.

“On our tour at the start of the URC in our first four games we had a fare bit of change, especially in the backline after two games, so it’s pretty similar there,” said Van Rooyen.

“Guys like Stean (Pienaar), his last chance was against Ulster, similar to Manie (Rass). Tiaan (Swanepoel) was injured and Divan’s (Rossouw) last game was there on tour, so the changes are mostly rotational.

“Also in terms of the way we want to play, we wanted to change it up a little bit and have the ability to freshen things up and I think this team can do that.”