Coach Van Rooyen lauds the character of his gutsy Lions, despite defeat

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen said he was terribly disappointed by their narrow defeat to the Sharks in Durban, but he was proud of his team for the character they showed and the big improvement in competitiveness compared to their dismal start to the year.

The Lions went down 19-16 to the Sharks in their opening Super Rugby Unlocked match on Friday, but they turned down a penalty that could have given them a draw to rather go for a win, only to be penalised at a five-metre scrum after the hooter.

But having won just one of their six games in the regular Super Rugby season earlier this year, to then push the form side in South Africa all the way to the end was heartening, especially after a poor start in which the Sharks led 13-0 after half-an-hour.

“Obviously we’re bitterly disappointed to lose, but the character and fight for the whole 80 minutes the guys showed was unbelievable,” Van Rooyen said after the game.

“So I’m happy with the effort but sad about the result. The Sharks obviously started well and put us under pressure, but we had a bit of hope and momentum going into the second half. We felt that shift.

“Being direct had started to work and the Sharks live on turnovers so that’s what we wanted to negate. So there were a lot of positives, especially the good fight and character the guys showed for 80 minutes, and a lot of individuals put up their hands. We want to challenge the players to adapt to different opponents and we had a specific plan for tonight.”

Lions captain Elton Jantjies also pointed to the big improvement in performance by the side.

“Tonight was probably a 7/10 for us in terms of performance, and that’s coming from a 3/10,” Jantjies said.

“So we will just keep training hard and believe. To only lose by three points here shows that we are doing the right things.”

Neither Van Rooyen nor Jantjies were throwing their toys out of the pram over the final penalty at the scrum that cost the Lions the game.

The Sharks had been under pressure for most of the match in that set-piece, but they had also won a couple of penalties earlier in the game.

“The Sharks obviously have a quality front row and I felt we handled them adequately,” Van Rooyen said.

“Obviously there are one or two scrums we will look at again, but generally I felt the scrums went well. The scrum was a good battle. Some of them we dominated, but there’s still a bit for us to work on.

“Both sides had opportunities to win the game and we scored one try each. I had a penalty against the posts, but that happens in rugby. There were other moments at the set-piece that were crucial as well.”

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