Lions to keep to their strengths against Bulls, regardless of the weather

The Lions will be looking to play to their strengths and not change too much, regardless of the possible wet weather conditions when they take on the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship (URC) cross-Jukskei derby at Loftus on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 2pm).

The Lions are well known for their expansive, attacking game plan, and their ability to launch attacks from anywhere on the park, as was evident in their impressive derby win over the Stormers at Ellis Park over the past weekend.

However, the deluge of rain that has come down over most of Gauteng over the past week, and with this weekend’s clash facing the real possibility of being a wet weather affair, that game plan may have to be tempered.

Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse however admitted that there could be changes but that they would never fully shy away from the way they want to play.

“There will always be small changes depending on the weather,” explained Pieterse.

“On the other hand, it wasn’t a hundred percent raining over the (past) weekend but it was wet conditions and we could still throw the ball around a bit. So we obviously have our strengths and we want to play towards that strength.”

The Bulls are known for their absolute forward dominance, their fantastic set piece often gives them the upper hand, and the Lions know they are in for a long day at the scrums against one of the competitions best scrumming teams.

But it is at the mauls that they will have to be weary as the Bulls got plenty of joy during their clash at Ellis Park late last month, which helped the visitors pick up a comfortable win.

Maul defence

The Lions will however be confident after a fantastic show of maul defence during their win over the Stormers and they will take that momentum into the Bulls game.

“We definitely expect them to use it (the maul). Against us at Ellis Park (last month) they actually got purchase a few times from mauls, not always close to the tryline, but sometimes a bit further out where they would get penalties and they pin you down in your own half,” said Pieterse.

“That has always been a strength of theirs and especially in this (wet) weather I think that will definitely be an area where they want to go to.”

Another key battle will likely be at the breakdown, where the Lions got plenty of joy against the Stormers, but struggled a bit against the Bulls, and they will be eager to emerge on top this time around.

“We pride ourselves on making good decisions at the breakdown in the last few games. Every loosie has a different role to play. Ruan Venter is the main ball carrier for us, JC (Pretorius) is the guy who slows the ball down and all that,” added Pieterse.

“In the end all our loosies can steal ball, but at the end of the day they have to make good decisions. If you look at the game’s teams steal from us and we steal from them. If you get to the breakdown and are in early you have the upper hand and that’s what our guys focus on.”