URC crunch match: Lions keen to stretch Sharks out wide

The Lions will be hoping that all their planning and analysis comes off when they host the Sharks in their vitally important United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Johannesburg side are on a four game losing streak in both the Challenge Cup and URC, having lost away games against Montpellier and the Bulls, as well as home matches against Ospreys and the Bulls over the past month and a half.

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It has left them in a tough position in both competitions, facing a tricky away last 16 match against Benetton in the Challenge Cup, while they are 11^th on the log in the URC, five points off the top eight and another defeat would see them slip further away from the knockouts.

“Our planning needs to be spot on. We have done a lot of research in terms of that (Bulls) game, a lot of analysis and soul searching,” explained Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher.

“We need to focus on our strengths and try and improve there. We need to play to our strengths and hopefully our next game (against Sharks) is the ideal opportunity for us to do that.”

Switch up

The Lions may be tempted to switch things up a bit after their most recent loss, a 25-10 defeat at home to the Bulls, was arguably their worst performance of the season.

They may look to bring flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse back into the starting line-up, after he seemed to steady the Lions game after coming on against the Bulls, which would see the electric Sanele Nohamba shift back to scrumhalf.

But Loubscher admitted that they would be mainly looking to get the ball out wide more as they have a deadly back three who can do damage with ball in hand.

“As the attack and backline coach that is part of my problem, to look for answers and come up with solutions. If you look at Jordan in the games, every time he comes on you can see a difference. So maybe that is something for us to consider,” said Loubscher.

“If you look at outside backs we have massive talent. You look at Henco (van Wyk), Richard (Kriel) and Edwill (van der Merwe) who don’t get the ball in their hands enough. I think that will be a plan for us going forward. To get the ball to them and give those guys opportunities on the edge to create havoc a bit.

“We have enough depth. If you look at the guys who played against Montpellier they put up their hands. So as coaches we need to sit down and look for the best combinations going forward into the Sharks game.”

Durban thriller

The Lions beat the Sharks 20-18 in an absolute thriller in their first clash in Durban at the start of January, but have lost form since with their four straight losses, so they will hope to gain some confidence from that performance and put in a strong showing.

“It was massive. The confidence going away from that game was great. The first half wasn’t good, we were a little bit jittery in our performance,” said Loubscher.

“Credit to the boys, they showed a lot of composure at half time. We chatted about solutions on what we needed to do going into the second half and it was nice for us to walk away with a win there.

“But the Sharks are desperate. After that game you can see they have been getting better and better. So hopefully we can put up a good performance (at home) against them.”