Log points vital for Lions, but not the driving force in Sharks URC clash

The Lions are involved in a massive battle for a place in the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs, but will not be distracted by how many points they need as they prepare to take on the Sharks in their derby match-up at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

The Lions are currently ninth on the table, but have a game in hand on all the teams around them, but after this weekend will be level with everyone else.

They are level on 28 points with Scarlets, Ospreys, the Stormers and Benetton, who they lead due to having won a game more than them, while they sit one point behind Connacht in eighth place, and five points of Munster up in fifth.

So it will be vital for the Lions to come away with as many points as possible this weekend, whether they win or lose.

If they can win with a bonus point, as they did over the past weekend against the Sharks at Ellis Park, they will go level with Munster and be firmly in the top eight mix.

But they could be in line for a backlash from the Sharks, who will want to avenge their heavy loss, and if they lose they will need to try to pick up as many bonus points as they can, for finishing within seven points and scoring four tries.

Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher, however, says that the team aren’t worried about that, and they are just focusing on themselves and looking to improve, despite almost a flawless performance in their last outing.

Process driven

“From our point of view we are process driven. We don’t want to look at the outcome or results. Our plan is to make sure we stick to our system and execute our plan,” explained Loubscher.

“So we aren’t focused on how many points we need to get out of the game and needing to get any bonus points. We want to be focus driven in terms of our processes.

“There are quite a few teams around us so any (log) points are vital, but we won’t be distracted by bonus-points or the table.

“The big focus for us is we know we have to be better. We can’t have the same level of preparation we had last week. So we are trying to fix the small things. We have to work hard on our game management and decision making. So it is a big focus for us to see where we can get better.”

The Lions have unfortunately been very inconsistent this campaign, as they have in previous seasons, so will be hoping to follow up their top performance over the past weekend with another strong showing, even though it’s difficult taking on the same team twice in a row.

“After the performance over the weekend we are expecting a tough and physical game going down to Durban. It’s tough to play teams back-to-back because you have to come up with new plans,” said Loubscher.

“From our perspective we need to fix our mistakes and learn what we can do better. Hopefully our plans will come off on Saturday.”