Lions aim to ‘build an innings’ against Glasgow in home URC clash

The Lions are hoping to bounce back from their first defeat in four games when they welcome Glasgow Warriors to Ellis Park for their United Rugby Championship match on Saturday.

Having returned from their successful three-match winning tour overseas, the Lions took on Ulster last week and just came up short, going down 39-37 against the Irish powerhouse team.

It was their second loss of the season, after they lost their opening match against the Bulls, also at Ellis Park, so the team will be eager to pick up their first home win of the campaign against Glasgow.

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Glasgow also head into the match off a loss, after being beaten 40-12 by the Sharks in Durban, but they will be keen to produce a performance similar to the one that upset the Bulls a week earlier.

“We need to focus on building an innings. We have to be clinical enough to put them under pressure. As you saw in the Bulls (v Glasgow) game, if you allow them to play they are a phenomenal attacking team,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“We need to be able to put them under set piece pressure, defensive pressure and make sure we have a bit of territory. I think we overplayed (against Ulster) a little in our half and that let them in, so we need to make sure we don’t do that too much against Glasgow.”

Good season

Despite their loss against Ulster, the Lions are happy with their season so far, which has seen them pick up wins over Ospreys and Cardiff in Wales and then a superb win against Edinburgh in Scotland.

 Last season they turned Ellis Park into a bit of a fortress with some impressive wins at the ground and they will be keen to do that again, starting with their match against Glasgow this weekend.

“We really feel as a team that we are in a good space in terms of role clarity, expectation and working for each other,” said Van Rooyen.

“I think the character is currently really strong in the team and if it wasn’t we probably wouldn’t have got the three results overseas and we wouldn’t have seen a fightback like we produced against Ulster.

“We now need to fix a few skill errors, rather than bigger problems that we had last season, which is always good for the coach. So that will be our focus over the coming week as we prepare for Glasgow.”