Lions target Ospreys for turnaround as Challenge Cup kicks off

The Lions are hoping to turn their fortunes around against Welsh side Ospreys when they battle it out at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea on Sunday as the Challenge Cup (EPCR) competition kicks off this weekend.

Last season the Lions went down twice to Ospreys, in the Challenge Cup and in the United Rugby Championship, so they will be desperate to return to winning ways against a team that they should be expected to beat.

Previous clashes

Their first game against Swansea was in the Challenge Cup at Ellis Park and going into the final eight minutes of the game the Lions held a comfortable-looking 28-17 lead, only for the Welsh visitors to stun them with three late converted tries to steal a 38-28 win.

The second match was in the URC in Swansea and although the Lions went into the game with plenty of confidence having stunned Connacht in Ireland a week previously, they produced a poor performance and were always chasing the game, eventually going down 36-21.

The Lions have beaten Ospreys before though, which was their last win over them, which came in Wales in September 2022 when they edged them 28-27 and they will be hoping for a similar or more comfortable result this time round.

“We definitely feel we can turn it around against them. We let it slip against them last season. At home (in the Challenge Cup), they came back at us and we allowed them to run onto us and play. In that second half their ability to pin us back in our own 22m was really good,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“In the game in Swansea I remember us parking 5m from their tryline, with about four or five scrums and eventually they turned the ball over and we lost the game. So we know they are a team we didn’t beat last season and we want to rectify that.”

Split squads?

The Lions will be aiming for a more settled look to their squad in this season’s Challenge Cup, after they chose to play almost completely different match 23s for all of their away games in the competition, bar their last 16 loss against Benetton.

“If you look at the last three seasons of the URC and Challenge Cup if you only play 26 or 28 players every single game you are going to run out of fuel,” said Van Rooyen.

“So we feel our squad is at a place where it doesn’t matter if it is URC or EPCR, we can rotate. So we will see who can play (against Ospreys) and who needs a break.

“We also have to get ready for Pau (at Ellis Park in the EPCR the following week) and then the Stormers in Cape Town (in the URC). So it is going to be a very busy few weeks and we have to be ready for that.”