Lions making progress despite loss against Munster

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen believes his charges are making plenty of progress and building towards something great, despite them going down to Munster over the past weekend for their second straight loss in the United Rugby Championship (URC) this season.

The Lions started the season with a bang, winning their opening four games, but have been stopped in their tracks by Irish giants, going down to Leinster 24-6 at the end of October, and then slipping up 17-10 against Munster in Limerick over the past weekend.

The Leinster result was expected, as the URC’s most dominant team in the pool phase over the past few seasons remains the only team unbeaten in this season’s competition.

But the Lions would have had hopes of upsetting Munster, who went into the match in poor form off the back of three losses, their coach Graham Rowntree leaving by mutual consent in October and sitting in the bottom five on the URC log.

But after a decent first half that saw them leading 10-7 at the break, they followed that up with a poor second half as Munster ran in two tries and kept them scoreless to clinch the win.

Van Rooyen admitted that it had been an opportunity lost, but that the teams progress was satisfying and that they would continue to build from here.

Work ons

“The focus for us now is to work on what we need to do better. Apart from the South African teams, and Glasgow currently, I don’t think there are tougher away games than Leinster and Munster,” said Van Rooyen.

“Even with Munster going through a bit of change (Rowntree leaving), we knew they would be up for the fight because things like that make a group tighter. So I don’t think we need to change much.

“For instance the progress in our kicking game between (facing) Leinster and Munster is huge. Also our ability to transfer pressure back and giving ourselves a chance to play in better areas has also improved.

“We are making a lot of progress. The frustration is just that we had an opportunity to do something special and unfortunately didn’t take it.”

The Lions now look ahead to the start of the Challenge Cup competition, with them up against Ospreys in Swansea this coming weekend before returning home to face French side Section Paloise.

Van Rooyen says they have a few things to work on ahead of those games, and that is what they would be focusing on in the coming week.

“I think we need to work on our decision making and the balance of what is needed in the moment. Is it to run with momentum and quick ball, or kick on front foot ball. Or if we are under pressure do we try to transfer that pressure back,” explained Van Rooyen.

“It is raining every day and one degree, and it is all of that. So it will be a big week for us in terms of prep for us in that area.”