Lions forwards driving high standards ahead of Jukskei derby against Bulls

The Lions forward pack are aiming to put in an even better performance than they did against the Bulls at Loftus a few weeks ago, when they meet their Highveld rivals in the return cross-Jukskei United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Although they lost the previous game at Loftus 30-28, the Lions forwards were in terrific form, winning all nine of their scrums, as well as two on the Bulls’ put in, while they also won 18 of their 21 lineouts for an impressive all-round effort.

Despite that top showing the players have admitted that it wasn’t their best performance and that they will be looking to improve on it back at home this weekend.

Home comforts

“That’s the feeling we get. The guys drive really high standards and the best thing for a coach from my perspective is the players driving that and that’s where we want to be,” explained Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys about the champion mentality being fostered by the forwards.

“That’s where we are as the pack at the moment. So I am really proud of the boys and even though we have some good performances (behind us), they know there are areas we can still improve on and that’s what they keep chasing.

“I am really confident that the boys can make a step up. That’s what we strive for. I am sure the Bulls will also look to improve, because that’s what every team tries to do. But I am looking forward to our pack and team making a step up on Saturday.”

‘Improvements’

In the previous encounter the Lions missed a penalty after the fulltime hooter that would have won them the match, and they were able to stay in touch with the Bulls throughout due to a strong defensive performance.

This time round they are aiming to hold onto the ball more and put the visitors under the same pressure that they were put under at Loftus.

“There were lots of learnings (from the loss). Obviously we were disappointed coming out of that game. But I think what was good is that we have had almost three weeks to prepare now,” said Redelinghuys.

“Their kicking game is something that we have worked on quite extensively and then from our own side we had a few things to fix. We have had a good amount of time to do that so hopefully we will see those improvements this weekend.”

Redlinghuys continued: “We pride ourselves on our defence. We obviously would like to hold onto the ball (a bit more) because that’s where you can impose ourselves and get good rewards.

“I think we had a lot of soft turnovers (in the last match). We ran into touch about five times which is really expensive. We also had a couple of handling errors.

“So this weekend we are focusing on lower turnovers, having the ball in hand more and to make them tackle us more, sort of like how we had to tackle them in the last game.”