Lions coach gives his team a big thumbs up after win against Stormers

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen was pleased with his team and admitted they looked calm amidst the “chaos”, in their comfortable 30-23 United Rugby Championship (URC) win over the Stormers at Ellis Park over the past weekend.

It was a top performance that broke a six match losing streak against the Cape side, with their only previous win in the URC having come back in December 2021 in Cape Town.

It also broke a four match losing streak in the URC for the Lions and though they only moved up the log into 12^th place, they crucially cut the difference to the top eight to four points, and with two games in hand it means they are in a decent position at the moment.

Speaking about the win, Van Rooyen said he hopes it instils a bit of belief in his team ahead of a tough three weeks coming up.

‘Brings belief’

“I think there was a massive drive to get the energy and how we want to play. It might feel small, but we haven’t beaten the Stormers in a long time, so that makes it worthwhile. Hopefully, it brings the belief, but there are still a lot of things that we can look at,” said Van Rooyen.

“I think we looked a lot more comfortable under chaos, which wasn’t the case (in the loss) against the Bulls (at Ellis Park late last month).

“We had some good attacking opportunities in the second part of the first half and used it. The Stormers, the way they selected, wanted to open up the game. But our defensive effort was huge.

“We knew because we didn’t play last week and the Stormers played a tough game that we needed to put an emphasis on a good start.”

Stormers stats dominant

The Stormers dominated the stats in the match, enjoying 67% territory and 63% possession, they made 509 metres to 375 for the visitors, and the Lions had to make 141 tackles, while the visitors only made 61.

The Lions also found themselves on the wrong side of the ref’s whistle, with them penalised 14 times to the Stormers only being pinged half of that.  

Despite that, it was the hosts who led 24-6 at halftime, and then 30-13 with under 15 minutes remaining, and the Stormers needed a converted try with 10 minutes left and a penalty on the fulltime hooter to sneak a bonus point.

“I thought our defensive effort was huge and we are equally as proud of the defensive maul stops,” said Van Rooyen, after the Lions managed to stop at least 10 maul attempts from the Stormers in their 22m.

“It was a big work-on and focus point for us. I think they scored two maul tries against us (in their previous clash in Cape Town in December) and we know how much energy that gives them. So it was great fight and great character from the guys, and I am really proud of the effort.”