‘We won’t give up,’ say Lions as they search for consistency in URC run in

The Lions will look to find the one thing that has been lacking the most in their season up to now – consistency – when they wrap up their United Rugby Championship regular season fixture list at home in the coming weeks.

Ivan van Rooyen’s team have experienced another up-and-down campaign, never able to string a set of positive results together over a long period, and thus find themselves down in 14th place in the standings.

They now basically have to win their final four regular season games, possibly with bonus points, to stand a chance of finishing in the top eight and featuring in the playoffs.

It is something the coaching staff and players believe is possible, but only if the Lions can find consistency over the next few weeks – in performance and in their results.

‘We have to fix it’

First up this weekend are Italian side Benetton, who they’ll play at Ellis Park at 1.45pm on Saturday.

“We’ve definitely not been consistent enough,” admitted assistant coach Barend Pieterse this week.

“It’s something we’re going to have to work on every week now if we want to make the top eight. So far in the competition we’ve played three good games, then two poor ones, or the other way round … we have to fix it.

“In a perfect world this is not where we want to be at this stage of the season. But, I believe we can still make it (to the top eight).

“We’re just going to have to take it one game at a time, win all of them, and hope that maybe one or two other results go our way as well. Getting a few bonus points along the way would also be great.”

As things stand going into the round, the Lions are six points off the team currently in eighth place, that is Edinburgh, who have 36 points. The Lions, thanks to six wins from 14 games, have 30 points.

‘We won’t give up’

Star flanker Ruan Venter says the players are also still upbeat about their chances of finishing inside the playoff spots.

“All the players are still motivated,” he said.

“Sure, we’ve made it difficult for ourselves, especially with our recent results on tour, but every player knows we must win four out of four and possibly get a few bonus points.

“But, we feel we can make the playoffs. We won’t give up, we’ll keep working.”

Following this weekend’s match against Benetton, the Lions have three more games at home, against Connacht, Scarlets and Ospreys.