Lions need to switch on to Ellis Park’s white noise

There will be a crowd of more than 60 000 roaring them on in the Super Rugby final against the Crusaders on Saturday but Lions captain Jaco Kriel said on Thursday that it needs to become white noise for the home side as they have to be switched on from the first minute against the Crusaders.

By their own admission, the Lions were poor against the Sharks in their quarterfinal, just scraping through thanks to a 78^th-minute long-range penalty by Ruan Combrinck.

Also read: John Mitchell: What it will take to win the Super Rugby final

They then made a terrible start to their semifinal against the Hurricanes, trailing 22-3 after half-an-hour.

Coach Johan Ackermann is certainly hoping for a better start and Kriel was also highlighting the importance of his team hitting their straps early on.

After all, they’re probably facing the toughest side to play catch-up rugby against.

“It makes a big difference being at home, it will be good to have a sell-out crowd and we must just embrace the opportunity and enjoy it, because we get just one chance. We learnt a lot from the quarter and semi-finals and ideally we want a good start this time,” said Kriel.

“We only played rugby in the second half last week, but it was an unbelievable atmosphere with 35 000 spectators, they really lifted us, when the crowd gets behind the team we really get energy from that.”

Ackermann, who played in the 2007 final for the Sharks that was snatched by the Bulls in dramatic fashion by a Bryan Habana try after the hooter, has been stressing the importance of complete focus from his team.

“The players all have certain roles in the team and they must just focus on that. They must embrace the moment, look around and enjoy it, but then they have to be switched on for 80 minutes because one mistake can cost you, like it cost us in 2007,” Ackermann said.

While there will be more than 60 000 people behind the Lions, their hopes of victory probably rest on the five players up front who make up the tight five.

“The Crusaders have the best scrum and lineout in the competition, their set-pieces have really worked for them. We have to make sure that ours work for us,” Kriel said.

Ackermann agreed: “On paper, the Crusaders strength is definitely, their pack, they have a number of All Blacks up front and it’s one of the best packs in world rugby. They’ve played a lot together, at Test level as well, they’re quality forwards and they’ve shown it all year.”

For more sport your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.