Lions must ‘man up’ against Bulls, says defence coach Fourie

The Lions coaching staff are working towards changing the players’ attitudes as they prepare to take on the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship return fixture at Loftus on Saturday.

The Lions were dreadfully off their game in last week’s loss to the Bulls, while their defence has been found wanting in their last two matches, leaking 10 tries.

“In the last two games our defence was terrible, so there are certain things we have to work on, but unfortunately we can only coach so much,” said Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie.

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“If the players don’t have the attitude, the work rate and the heart to do it for each other you can only go so far, so we are really working hard so we can change that.

“The Bulls are a physical side. If you are going to let them run at you for 80 minutes they are going to give you a hiding, so for us it is about manning up, fixing what we did wrong last weekend and fronting up on our tackles, which we have been working really hard on the past two days.”

It is vital for the Lions to bounce back with a good performance at Loftus after losing all the momentum they picked up from their away win over the Stormers in December.

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Since then they have picked up just one point from a possible 10, with losses against the Sharks and Bulls, and they will need to improve drastically against the same opponents this weekend.

“On one hand we are playing the same side, so we know what is expected and what they are going to bring on the weekend with one or two changes in their game plan,” said Fourie.

“But for us we get another chance to play against a side that beat us by 24 points. So it is about pride this weekend and taking a stand.

“I think it is also a turning point in our URC campaign. We are not just going to let teams score easy tries against us because we are working really hard to score our own tries, and to give away easy tries, that’s not the way we want to play.”