Lions have to be better to reach their goals in 2025

The Lions will have to improve if they are to attain their stiff goal of finishing in the United Rugby Championship (URC) top four at the end of the season, as they head into the new year.

A lot can change over two weekends and the Lions have dropped from sixth to 11^th on the log since the URC resumed after a few weekends of Champions and Challenge Cup (EPCR) action.

However, they only played one game during that time, falling to a 29-10 defeat to the Stormers in Cape Town, while most of the URC sides played twice.

Only seven points separate the Lions from fourth placed Cardiff, while they also have two games in hand over most of the teams above them.

Home run

What also counts in their favour is that they have played just two URC games at home this season, and the other five away, which will see them get into a nice home run of games at some point.

But they can still be disappointed with some of their results so far this season, after starting the competition with a bang.

They picked up four straight wins to get up and running; two with bonus points against Ulster and Edinburgh in Johannesburg, before edging Dragons and Zebre in Wales and Italy respectively.

Since then they have lost to Leinster and Munster in Ireland, followed by the Stormers result just over a week ago.

The two results they shouldn’t be too happy with are the Munster (17-10) loss and Stormers game. If they are serious about finishing in the URC top four they needed to win one of those.

The Lions have yet to finish in the URC top eight, with two ninth placed finishes in the past two seasons the closest they have gotten to the playoffs, and that is definitely an attainable goal for them and one that should be non-negotiable.

However, finishing in the URC top four is a completely different kettle of fish, and although ordinarily games away against Munster and Stormers could be glossed over, this season they represented opportunities for the Lions to make a statement of intent.

Heading into both those games the host teams were in poor form. Munster had seen their long term coach Graham Rowntree depart, while the Stormers were struggling and had won just two out of six URC games at that stage.

Perfect opportunity

It was thus the perfect opportunity for the Lions to pick up what would have been a huge away win, but they were unfortunately unable to do that.

If the Lions seriously want to make the URC top four, as their coach Ivan van Rooyen boldly declared before the start of the season, they will have to win the odd big away game, and that is what they have to improve on.

Speaking after the Stormers game Van Rooyen was in pretty good spirits, despite three URC losses on the bounce, and said that they would be back and ready to roll in January.

“I don’t think the goal will change. We have only had two home URC games. The rest were all away and the last three were Leinster, Munster and Stormers (on the road). So we won’t get locked up on that (losses),” explained Van Rooyen.

“But we have a couple of days off and then it’s two EPCR games and then back into the URC. It is probably a good time to refresh mentally and rest a couple of bodies, and then get back onto the horse.

“The first five months next year fixture wise is quite tough, but we know we have a big run in at home of about six or seven games in a row that really excites us.”