Ross Roche

By Ross Roche

Senior sports writer


Lions eager to regain momentum and return to winning ways in URC

The Lions will be keen to pick up wins against Glasgow and the Stormers before pausing for a few weeks during the November international break.


The Lions have enjoyed a strong start to the current United Rugby Championship season and part of that is down to their impressive attack, which they are hoping will be firing on all cylinders against Glasgow Warriors at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.

They have scored 17 tries in five games so far this season, including five against Ulster in their tight loss over the past weekend, and they will be keen to score more against Glasgow.

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“We are pleased with our effort on attack and it’s nice to see what we have done in pre-season start to pay off finally. All the credit must go to the players for working hard, paying attention to the small details and hopefully on Saturday we can do the same,” said attack coach Ricardo Loubscher.

In the game against Ulster the Lions scored some spectacular tries in the second half as they fought back from a big deficit, but their play was a bit frantic and that is something they will want to work on ahead of the Glasgow match.

‘Composure and patience’

“We have spoken about having composure and patience. I think that (frantic play) was down to how we started the game. We were chasing the game and in that last 20 minutes we really had to take the game to them and credit to the boys for having a great mindset,” said Loubscher.

“We would love them to be a little bit more patient and more composed, but we are still learning as a team and hopefully in the next few games we can take a few lessons from those situations.

“But I think the big thing for us is to start well. Whether it is the first or second half we need to start well, make sure we build some scoreboard pressure and make sure we put them under pressure a bit more.”

ALSO READ: Lions aim to build an innings against Glasgow in home URC match

Following the Glasgow match the Lions will host the Stormers before the competition breaks for the November international window, so the Lions will be looking to have a strong two weeks to take some momentum into the break.

“The big word is momentum. We spoke about bouncing back and it is important for us to get back to winning ways this weekend. So we have to get our preparation right. We want to build some momentum over the next two weeks,” said Loubscher.

“Hopefully we can get a win on Saturday to take into the Stormers game and then we can have a bit of a break after that. We know it is a challenging two weeks coming up, but our focus is on Glasgow now to try and get a good result there first.”

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