Challenge Cup important for Lions as they target Pau scalp

Despite a second-string team going down heavily in their Challenge Cup opener in Wales over the weekend, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen insisted that the competition was important for them as they prepared to host French side Section Paloise (Pau) at Ellis Park on Saturday.

It has been a difficult travel schedule for the Lions, which has seen them play against Irish side Munster in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in Limerick just over a week ago, before popping over to Wales for the start of the Challenge Cup against Ospreys in Llanelli on Sunday.

It is now a short turnaround for them with their second Challenge Cup pool match against Pau back in Johannesburg on Saturday, while the team also has to contend with wildly different weather conditions, coming from a freezing European winter into a hot South African summer.

This led the Lions to send home a large number of their regulars after the Munster game to prepare for Pau, with 14 changes made to their starting XV for the match against Ospreys, and their fringe players struggled in the end, falling to a 30-14 defeat.

With just four pool matches in the Challenge Cup, before competition heads into the knockout phase, the Lions know a second straight loss could be fatal to their chances, while a win would see them back on track ahead of their clashes against Montpellier away and Dragons at home in January.

Important competition

“This competition is important for us. We wanted to get off to a good start and obviously we didn’t. So that makes Pau massive and then next year it makes Montpellier away (in France) and Dragons back at home non-negotiables,” said Van Rooyen.

Despite the heavy defeat against Ospreys, Van Rooyen believed his squad was good enough to challenge on both fronts, in the URC and Challenge Cup, and that the fringe players would learn a lot from their trip to Wales.

“We are not happy with the result. But if you look at the bigger picture, such as development and exposure, making sweeping changes like this is worthwhile,” said Van Rooyen.

“We believe we have a squad good enough to compete in both competitions. It is a squad that is hungry to reach the playoffs in both. Five out of our seven games this season have been away from home.

“So we are looking forward to being back home (against Pau). We then have Stormers away (in Cape Town in the URC) and Montpellier away (in France in Challenge Cup). We always knew that in the first half of our season 80% of the games would be away.

“That is a challenge in itself, but that’s the draw. You just have to find solutions to that. Overall we are excited about where we are squad wise in terms of opportunities and challenging for positions. We just have to get the consistency up.”