Lions looking to put difficult week behind them against Glasgow

The Lions are looking to put a difficult week in the media behind them and put in a strong performance against Glasgow Warriors, in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 4:15pm).

Explosive allegations of player unhappiness in the camp during the week and various other leaks had made it a turbulent build up to the clash, but the players have come together and decided to focus on putting in a big performance against the Scottish visitors.

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“This is a good challenge for us. We came together as players and had a good meeting in the week. We have set ourselves the goal of making this about the players and the team going forward,” explained Lions prop Ruan Dreyer.

“Glasgow is a massive challenge, they are fifth on the log. So for us we just want to focus on the task at hand, take it game by game and make the best out of every game going forward.

“At the end of the day each one of us has our own future in our own hands, and we can’t be bothered by anything else other than giving a good performance on Saturday.”

Despite going down to the Sharks 29-7 in their URC match last weekend, Dreyer pointed to the first half performance, which the Lions dominated but went into the break level at 7-all, in what they are hoping to achieve over the full match against Glasgow.

“If you take that first 40 minutes last week, looking at the amount of opportunities we created and our style of play, the guys are really playing for each other and leaving it all out there,” said Dreyer.

“It’s just those small margins for us to bring everything together. That’s what we as players are striving for, to try keep that up and turn it into an 80 minute performance.

“If we can finish of a few last passes, keep the ball one more phase and get those points on the board we will do well.”

80 minute performance

Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys reiterated the sentiments of Dreyer, while adding that the team were focusing on getting all aspects of their game right in a full 80 minute performance, if they were to stand any chance of beating the high flying Glasgow.

“We feel we have been starting well in most of our games and then in the second half we have been losing our momentum and dominance and making mistake after mistake which sees us losing by big margins because of errors and lack of discipline,” said Redelinghuys.

“Our goal is to put in a full 80 minute performance and make sure that all of our areas are functioning well. What we have noticed is that in games some aspects of our game work well and others don’t, and then next week it is different.

“So we need to make sure that our attack, defence, kicking game and set piece all function well, while remaining disciplined and conceding less turnovers. If we can put all of that together for 80 minutes that will do the job for us.”