Lions’ Ntlabakanye pumped up to face best URC scrumming pack

Lions powerhouse prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye is relishing a box office battle against the “best scrumming pack” in the competition when his team take on the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship (URC) cross-Jukskei derby at Loftus on Saturday afternoon.

It is the second meeting between the teams in less than a month, after the Bulls triumphed 35-22 at Ellis Park late in January, and on that occasion the visitors’ pack got the better of the hosts, helping them to a comfortable win in the end.

Ntlabakanye admitted the team had been hard at work fixing things and that they were once again fired up to test themselves against the best in the business, this time on their home turf.

Work-ons

“Obviously, they’ve worked on a few things. I think if I get too technical, a lot of people here will get confused. So I think with them, as a unit, I think they operate very well,” explained Ntlabakanye.

“If you’re on the outside, you won’t see the small things they do for the pack to be moving forward. So as a pack, we just have to nullify that and do what we’re good at. Hopefully, we can match each other. We have to be at our best and also just play our right game.

“We are very excited to face the best scrummaging pack in the competition, and we are looking forward to challenging ourselves against guys who have played at the highest level. When you play against the Bulls as a forward pack, you know it’s going to be a tough day.

“We are well aware of what is coming this weekend and are refining our set piece. We know it’s their strong point but it’s also one of ours, so we are proud of it and we have been really focused on that.”

The Bulls have had a sloppy past two weeks in the URC, after they were incredibly lucky to escape from Cape Town with a 33-32 win when Stormers replacement back Clayton Blommetjies missed a very kickable conversion with less than a minute left of the clock.

Error prone

The Bulls had largely dominated that game, but kept the Stormers alive with a number of mistakes, and over the past weekend they were again error prone against the Sharks, but were this time punished, with the Durban side stunning them with a 29-19 win at Loftus.

Despite the Bulls looking vulnerable, Ntlabakanye said the Lions weren’t paying any attention to that and were instead expecting a massive response from the hosts.

“We know what Loftus means to the Bulls, it’s their home ground. It’s a tough place to go and play, regardless of their result against the Sharks,” said Ntlabakanye.

“We don’t see them as vulnerable. The Bulls are on the back of a loss but we are expecting a reaction.

“We know they are going to want to rectify that against us this weekend. We have to be at our best and play our rugby and try to be better than last weekend.”