Challenge Cup knockouts were ‘a learning experience’ for Lions

The Lions will take valuable lessons out of their first stint in European knockout rugby, after their Challenge Cup campaign was ended at the quarterfinal stage by Glasgow Warriors in Scotland over weekend.

The Lions enjoyed a solid campaign overall, winning three games, drawing once and losing twice in their first appearance in the Challenge Cup.

In the pool stage they beat Dragons away and Stade Francais at home, but they drew their home clash against the Welsh outfit and lost their away match against the French side.

Knockout clashes

This put them third on the log, which gave them a home last 16 clash, with them putting in possibly their best performance of the season as they played for over 60 minutes with 14 men but still managed to thump French giants Racing 92 51-28.

This set them up for an away quarterfinal against Glasgow at the Scotstoun Stadium, and despite a valiant effort against an international laden side, they fell just short with a 31-21 loss.

READ MORE: Brave Lions go down fighting against Glasgow Warriors

“The best learning experience is to be exposed to a game of this magnitude, playing a knockout away from home against a high-quality team studded with internationals. I really could see how much this experience meant to the guys,” said Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen after the match.

“One area where we’ve really improved immensely over the past 6 to 8 weeks is our ability to absorb lessons quicker, fixing on the go and we’re starting to do that. That’s the difference between top-class players and others, the ability to adapt and improve during a game in specific situations.”

Losing key players

In the Glasgow match the Lions also lost two key players in the first quarter of the game to head knocks which set them back, after a nasty collision saw wing Rabz Maxwane stretchered off, followed by last 16 player of the match Ruan Venter, who had become a colossal figure among the forwards.

“Rabz pace and x-factor has been a point of difference for us, similar to Edwill (van der Merwe), so losing that pure speed and pace on the turnover with kick chases and all that was a big loss,” admitted Van Rooyen.

“Ruan Venter is then our main ball carrier in giving us momentum and tackler in stopping theirs, so to lose that early on was obviously a challenge.

“But it gave an unbelievable opportunity to someone like Ruan Delport, who is 20 years old, to play that many minutes against a team like this.”

Both Maxwane and Venter are expected to miss the Lions’ next game or two as they follow return-to-play concussion protocols, but other than that Van Rooyen didn’t see any significant injuries to his side ahead of their massive end of season run-in in the United Rugby Championship.