Lions gearing up for final local URC derby ahead of UK sojourn

It has been an incredibly tough run of local derbies in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and the Lions are gearing up for their sixth straight, and fourth on consecutive weekends, when they take on the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.

Their local derby run started back in December when the Lions went down 29-10 to the Stormers in Cape Town, with them next facing the Bulls in late January, going down 35-22 at Ellis Park.

Their current run of derbies started in mid-February, with them beating the Stormers 30-23 at Ellis Park, before falling to the Bulls again, 31-19 at Loftus, and then producing their best performance of the season in thumping the Sharks 38-14 back at home over the past weekend.

They thus take great momentum into their final SA derby of the season at Kings Park, but despite their most recent performance, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen believes they need to be even better in the game on the coast.

They will also be eager to take a win into their UK tour, which starts towards the end of March, where they will face Cardiff and Glasgow Warriors in the URC, followed by a Challenge Cup last 16 clash against Edinburgh.

Stuck into prep

“It will be four games in a row against South African teams (on consecutive weekends), and after this week we’ve got a bye, so we can really get stuck into prep this week,” said Van Rooyen.

“After that, we’ve got two more away games in the URC and a European (Challenge Cup) game again. Hopefully, we can win that round of 16 game and then it’s either stay there (for a quarterfinal) or it’s back here.

“We can’t control that, but what we can control is our prep, our mindset and understanding what we are doing well currently. Just mentally they (the Sharks) are going to be 10 to 15 percent better anyway, so it’s a big week in prep for us.”

Sharks coach John Plumtree was extremely disappointed with his side’s performance, and admitted that they would be looking into what went wrong, but that they would also be ready for a response in the return fixture.

“We’ll be expecting a response from everyone with the home game. A week’s a long time in rugby. Next week we can’t be feeling like this, so it could be a timely wake-up call,” said Plumtree.

Lions upcoming fixtures

• URC: March 8 v Sharks at Kings Park in Durban – 2pm kick-off

• URC: March 21 v Cardiff at Arms Park in Wales – 9:35pm kick-off

• URC: March 29 v Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun Stadium in Scotland – 9:35pm kick-off

• Challenge Cup: April 4 v Edinburgh at the Hive Stadium in Scotland – 9pm kick-off