Lions still chasing URC top four ahead of local derby run

Before the season started Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen revealed a lofty goal, stating his side would be targeting a finish in the top four of the United Rugby Championship (URC), despite having never finished in the top eight over three previous seasons.

They started their URC campaign in blistering form, with home bonus point wins over Ulster and Edinburgh, before heading on the road where they edged Dragons and Zebre in Wales and Italy, to keep their winning run intact.

However, the Lions have since lost their last three games, all away from home, against Irish giants Leinster and Munster, as well as the Stormers in Cape Town.

That has led to them slipping from the upper echelons of the log to 12^th place, although they have two games in hand on most of the teams above them.

Top four attainable

Despite the blip in form and now being in the bottom half of the log, Lions eighthman Francke Horn says there has been no shift in focus and that the players and coaching staff all still believe they can reach their lofty target.

“If you look at where we are now in the season, top four is still attainable and that will always be our goal. We have two games in hand, so if we can use this opportunity, take the Bulls head on (this coming weekend) and start winning our SA games, then the picture will look much better,” explained Horn.

“So we definitely won’t be changing our goals. We wouldn’t have set them if we didn’t think we could achieve them, and we are going to stick with chasing top four.

“We have spoken (recently) about how we want to get there and that we as a team and as individuals just have to do our jobs and play better rugby. If we play like a team and to our standards, we look quite unstoppable.”

Local derbies

The Lions now head into a run of local URC derbies where those top four credentials will be tested to the limit, as they host the Bulls and Stormers at Ellis Park, before taking on the Bulls at Loftus.

They will then host the Sharks in Johannesburg before traveling to Durban for the return fixture on successive weekends to round out an incredibly tough run of five straight local derbies.

They head into the run off the back of a 60-10 Challenge Cup drubbing of Dragons over the past weekend, and will look to take that momentum into the Bulls game.

 “The local derbies are always tough ones. Like it was for us against the Stormers (in December). We were in that game until the 70^th minute. So they are never run away games,” admitted Horn.

“Being where we are on the log and having two games in hand, those are against SA teams so we need to build momentum, and with it being the Jukskei derby I don’t think there is any extra motivation needed. We will be up for it.”