Struggling Lions must turn things around to save face in URC

The Lions have no choice but to stand up and be counted in the United Rugby Championship or risk their maiden campaign dissolving into a farce over the coming few months.

It has been a disastrous start to the year for the union, losing nine games in just two months, which included five URC matches and four in the Currie Cup.

The poor results do not come as a huge surprise, as the Lions have the weakest squad with the least depth out of the four URC franchises.

This after their questionable decision to split their squads for the Currie Cup campaign, which left a slew of inexperienced former and current Under-20 players to take up the challenge, and this was always going to be a tough ask, as it has proven to be.

ALSO READ: Massive challenge for European teams as they head to SA

So their nine losses were not exactly unexpected, as they went into every one of those games as the underdogs, but what has been disappointing has been the manner of a number of those defeats.

In their five URC losses, the Lions have faced the Sharks, Stormers, the Bulls twice and Leinster in Ireland.

In their home match against the Sharks and their away match against the Bulls, they put in good efforts and were largely competitive despite going down in both.

But their two home games against the Stormers and Bulls were bitterly disappointing results, due to the way they just did not pitch up for either fixture, allowing them to be brushed aside with ease.

Their most recent loss against a powerful Leinster team, who were missing all of their Irish internationals, was a much better performance and one they need to build on coming into a vital home run of fixtures.

ALSO READ: Erasmus says it would be ‘awesome’ for Boks to play in Six Nations

Of their seven remaining URC matches, the Lions should be targeting wins in at least four of them.

They should be competitive in their home games against Cardiff, Ospreys, Benetton and their away game against the Dragons, and with three of them being played on the Highveld, they should be able to utilise that.

Their home games against Munster and Edinburgh and their away match against the Sharks will be very tough and they will not start as favourites in any of those.

Despite their struggles, the Lions are not a bad side. They have a number of very talented emerging players who have proven themselves good enough, but for how long will they be willing to hang around?

It will now also be a make or break few months for head coach Ivan van Rooyen and his coaching staff and they will need to motivate their players over the next few weeks or risk finding themselves out in the cold.