Lions have ‘us against the world’ mindset for end-of-season charge

The Lions are set for a busy few weeks as they prepare for a massive end of season run in, in both the United Rugby Championship (URC) and Challenge Cup competitions.

A stunning turnaround in fortunes over the past two weekends has seen the Lions reignite hopes of a top eight finish in the URC, although with them currently in 11^th place they will need to win their last three pool games, which includes a home match against Irish powerhouse Leinster, to stand a chance.

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The Lions will also be hosting French giants Racing 92 in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup, which is a competition they will be hoping to go far in.

With a three week break before the main Lions team gets back down to business in the URC, an away match against Benetton in Italy, coach Ivan van Rooyen admits that the team will be busy preparing for their massive run in.

“It has been a relatively tough last three weeks in terms of preparation and physicality. On the one hand, you want to play. On the other hand it’s a week or two that some broken bodies can heal, and we can get a couple of guys back,” said Van Rooyen about the three week gap between games.

“We will release a couple of guys to play in the Currie Cup. We are going to train Monday and Tuesday, and then take the rest of the week off, just to have a physical and mental break. Then the week thereafter, we are going to train flat-out again.

“Currently, we are training the Currie Cup team against the URC team, and next week we will prepare the Currie Cup guys, and the same the following week. Then after that, we will probably fly on the Monday or Tuesday to Benetton.

“It’s important for us to stay sharp, even if we’re not playing, and put the guys in as many rugby decision-making drills and scenarios as possible.”

Big wins

Van Rooyen claims that the big wins over the past two weekends, 34-25 against Glasgow Warriors at Ellis Park, and then 29-25 over the Bulls at Loftus, will have given the team massive confidence and belief that they can finish the season strong.

“Last week and this week will be huge for us confidence-wise. The ability to score points, and it’s not just threes, but fives or sevens, and to do it with ball-in-hand was the big change in the last two weeks,” explained Van Rooyen.

“We said it in the change room, it’s an us versus the world mindset for the rest of the season. Every game, we are backs against the wall to make the top eight, and it’s the same in the EPCR (Challenge Cup).

“We are probably going to have one home game, with the rest away, so there is going to be quite a bit of travelling.”