Lions to ‘refresh and reflect’ after tough three week UK tour — captain Horn

The Lions are hoping to be refreshed when they get back down to training on Thursday, after a difficult tour to the UK that saw them lose all three games over the past three weeks, in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and EPCR Challenge Cup.

The Lions kicked things off with a tight 20-17 loss to Cardiff in Wales, before heading over to Scotland where they were thrashed 42-0 by Glasgow Warriors, and were dumped out of the EPCR at the last 16 stage with a 24-12 loss to Edinburgh.

They arrived back in South Africa on Monday and have been given a couple of days off to rest, before getting back down to business as they have four more pool matches in the URC to try and claw their way up from 14^th on the log into the top eight to secure a playoff place.

“It was definitely a tough tour. Obviously we didn’t go there to lose all our games, we went there to win but unfortunately things didn’t go our way,” explained Lions captain Francke Horn.

“So it was a difficult three weeks. We had that close result against Cardiff, and against Edinburgh I thought we could have won that one. Glasgow was just a poor first half performance.

“We are back (training) on Thursday. I think these few days off will have given the guys some time to refresh (their bodies) and also to have had some good time to reflect on themselves and the team, and that will be good for us.”

Cardiff loss

The Cardiff result was a difficult one for the Lions to stomach as they dominated the match and deserved to win, but couldn’t finish their numerous chances, which in the end proved extremely costly.

That set the tone for a disastrous tour, as they headed to Glasgow where they conceded six first half tries on their way to a big defeat, before another dismal first half against Edinburgh had them 17-0 down at the break before they fought back.

Horn however doesn’t believe that the Cardiff loss contributed to their poor tour, and that each game was decided on their own merits in the end.

“It’s difficult to say now in hindsight. But I wouldn’t say it was a knock to our confidence, because we played some really good rugby against Cardiff and we almost won the game (at the death),” said Horn.

“So I don’t think that was why we played poorly against Glasgow, we just weren’t at our best. While they were really good from broken play and were really accurate, and against Edinburgh we lost it in the first half.

“We were inaccurate and we need to be more consistent in the games. We can’t make so many errors and have lapses of concentration, and then try and rescue it in the second half.”