Lions ‘not good enough’ in some areas, says coach Van Rooyen

Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen was disappointed with the amount of errors made by his team in their heavy 30-14 Challenge Cup defeat against Ospreys in Llanelli on Sunday, while a large number of players didn’t take advantage of their opportunities.

The Lions made 14 changes to their starting XV for their competition opener against their Welsh United Rugby Championship (URC) rivals, due to travel logistics.

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With the Lions having played Irish giants Munster in the URC in Limerick the week before, and coming up against French side Section Paloise (Pau) at home this coming Saturday, they faced a short turnaround and drastic change of conditions from the European winter to South African summer.

They thus sent a whole host of first-choice regulars home to prepare for the game against Pau, while they sent a slew of second stringers over to Wales for the game against a team they have now lost to three times in a row.

It was therefore a big opportunity for some of the Lions’ fringe players to make a statement and put some pressure on their starting regulars, but in the end it didn’t pan out that way after a poor performance all-round.

‘Disappointing performance’

“That’s a big part of the disappointment of this performance. A lot of guys got opportunities, but didn’t take them,” explained Van Rooyen after the match.

“I told them before the game that it wasn’t to see if they were good enough (to play at this level). We know they are. But it was a chance for them to perform on this stage under pressure and they struggled.”

Van Rooyen admitted that this now put the main group under pressure to get a big win against Pau on Saturday, as there were just four pool stage games in the Challenge Cup before the teams moved into the knockout phase, and a second defeat could end the Lions challenge before it even started.

“This puts a big emphasis on our game at home against Pau. We only arrive (back in SA) on Tuesday, so we always knew we were going to have to use the full squad over these two games,” said Van Rooyen.

“Also coming from minus conditions to heat of 35-36 degrees, you can’t expect the same group that flew to Europe to fly back and get the best performance out of those same 25 players.”

Poor second half

Against Ospreys, the Lions produced a decent first-half showing and if it wasn’t for two relatively easy penalty misses from flyhalf Sam Francis, they could have been level at half-time instead of trailing 13-7.

The second half was then a poor effort as they fell apart after two early tries boosted Ospreys into a 25-7 lead, before both teams dotted down in the final five minutes during a frenetic finish.

“I think it was a combination of things (that went wrong). Our decision making under pressure is an area of growth that we have been talking about. Our execution of possessional skill also wasn’t good enough,” said Van Rooyen.

“The wind and conditions were tough. But if you don’t take your receiving kick-off that puts you under pressure. In the second half I think we lost every single contestable kick they sent at us. So that puts your decision making under pressure.

“But to sum it up I think we made something like 30 errors, and you can never think you will win a game by making that many mistakes and it cost us.”