Lions need log points – and a confidence boost – as Unlocked competition nears end

Lions coach Cash van Rooyen has to flip a double-sided coin when his team take on the Pumas in their final Super Rugby Unlocked clash at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions are effectively out of the running for the reshaped domestic Super Rugby competition, but the importance this weekend of carrying a full house of points forward into the up-coming Currie Cup competition cannot be underestimated.

This leaves the Lions with a dual mission – to end their Unlocked campaign on a high and at the same time provide themselves with a strong launch pad for the Currie Cup.

The Joburg side have a bye next weekend while the competition’s final round is played, which would allow Van Rooyen to clear his head before hitting the restart button for the Currie Cup, which gets underway on November 28.

The hosts will be boosted by the return of star players like flanker Jaco Kriel, lock Willem Alberts, prop Wiehahn Herbst and fullback EW Viljoen, who is expected to fill in for the injured Gianni Lombard.

As things stand, the Lions can accumulate a maximum of 15 points, with the pace-setters, the Bulls, on the threshold of the title, able to reach a maximum of 24 and the Stormers, Sharks or Cheetahs left to fight it out for the runners-up berth.

That would leave the Lions with a mountain to climb already in the Currie Cup, with a sizeable points-deficit to try and erase.

Their task won’t be made any easier considering they only have two home games in the revamped Currie Cup – against the Sharks and Western Province – the only two opponents faced away from home in the Unlocked series.

Nobody could perhaps blame the Lions if they looked back at the Unlocked series as one of missed opportunities, having lost three of their four matches to date by narrow margins and a fifth, against the Cheetahs, having been called off.

In the positive column, while the points or log position may not reflect such, they haven’t lost a single match so far by more than six points.

Against the Sharks they went down 19-16, lost 23-17 to the Stormers and 30-25 against the Bulls last weekend.

In all those games they found themselves in a strong finishing position, with an attacking scrum against the Sharks not going their way, a late turnover costing them against the Stormers, while against the Bulls, they were trailing by just s single point (22-23) late into the match.

In all three games they also shared the try-scoring tally – 1-1 against the Sharks, 2-2 against the Stormers and 3-3 against the Bulls.

All they need now is to just find that composure and the cutting edge to turn all those near misses into victories.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.