Lions eager to emulate Springboks and turn tight losses into wins

The Lions are looking to take inspiration from the Springboks to overturn a run of tight losses as they chase their first win of the United Rugby Championship (URC) season when they take on Scarlets in Wales on Saturday evening.

It has been a tough start to the season for the Lions with them losing their opening three games, but they have been well in with a chance of winning each match which has seen them pick up four bonus points so far.

In their opener against the Stormers at Ellis Park they went down 35-33 in a thriller, before Edinburgh edged them 17-16 in Scotland and they then suffered a 15-10 defeat to Benetton in Italy over the past weekend.

‘We have seen what one point can do’

Lions assistant coach Julian Redelinghuys admitted that the close losses were hurting the team and that they wanted to turn that around this weekend against Scarlets.

“We have seen what one point can do. If you look at the Springboks in the World Cup they won their quarterfinal, semifinal and final by one point. We’ve been on the other side of that and the margins are so small,” explained Redelinghuys.

“I can’t question the guys’ work rate, intent or ‘desperateness’ to win the game. They have also been dominating physically. But the guys just have to sharpen up and get better clarity on what needs to be done at what times of the game.

“At this level, especially when touring overseas, the team has to be on point to get that win, even if it is just by one point.

“With the (small) margins in this game, there are one or two moments in a game that can be the difference of you winning by one point or losing by one point. So I think we just have to be better in those moments.”

Scarlets match

The Lions will definitely be targeting the Scarlets match to get themselves off the mark, as the Welsh side are arguably the weakest team that they will have faced over these opening rounds.

They will also be well aware that they face an incredibly difficult final match of their overseas tour against Ulster in Ireland next weekend, and should they not break their duck against Scarlets, could be heading home to SA on the back of five straight losses.

“It would be great if we can get a good result this weekend and then go into the Ulster match with confidence. No one is unbeatable in this competition, but it is really tough,” said Redelinghuys.

“But what I like about our team at the moment is the guys step up better when it is tough. So this is a game that we feel we can build some good momentum.

“We need a good performance and we feel it in the team that something is going to happen, we just need a (positive) result to push us forward.”