Lions injected with energy ahead of Ospreys battle

The Lions are hoping their brilliant 38-14 United Rugby Championship (URC) win over Connacht will be a tipping point and see them kick on to bigger things as they prepare to take on Ospreys in Swansea on Saturday.

It has been a mixed two seasons in the URC so far for the Lions, who have shown flashes of brilliance in their campaigns, but on both occasions they failed to finish in the top eight to make the competition playoffs.

Their bonus-point win over Connacht, which was a first victory for a South African team in Galway and was made all the more impressive by doing it with 14 men after an early red card, has boosted them up to eighth on the log and they are now hoping to consolidate their spot with another top performance in Wales.

Energy and gees

“There is a nice ‘gees’ (in the squad). A win away on tour always creates energy. There is a great vibe. We take a lot of confidence out of beating them (Connacht) with 14 men, but we know we have to back that up now,” said Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher.

“We can use this opportunity to kick on. I would like to see it as a tipping point in performances over the past few years. There is good clarity around our style of play and as coaches we must make sure we get the selection right and there is a plan A and a plan B.

“For us it is about moving forward and putting in another good performance. We need to prepare well. The bodies are a little sore after that (Connacht) game, especially given ball in play and the effort defensively. The boys put in a big shift.”

Fixing errors

The Lions will also be looking to try and fix the mistakes they made in a 38-28 Challenge Cup loss against Ospreys at Ellis Park in January, when they let an 11-point lead slip in the final eight minutes to disappointingly go down.

“We have just discussed that Ospreys game in a meeting, and we still can’t believe how we lost focus for 10 minutes towards the end,” explained Loubscher.

“We took the foot off the gas after scoring some brilliant tries in the first half, and let them into the game. It also shows how tough they are because when we opened the door for them, they did the rest. So, we want to rectify what happened, and hopefully we can be on the right side of the result.”