Still trying to find their ‘identity’ — so where to now for the Lions?

The Lions are on the brink of yet another season of disappointment and face an acid test of four home pool matches in the United Rugby Championship (URC) to try and resurrect their top eight hopes to secure a place in the competition quarterfinals.

They first, however, have to get over a dismal UK tour that saw them flop to a 20-17 defeat to Cardiff, crash to a humiliating 42-0 loss to Glasgow Warriors, both in the URC, and then get dumped out of the EPCR Challenge Cup with a 24-12 loss against Edinburgh over the past weekend.

They have now lost their last four games, stretching back to their 25-22 loss to the Sharks in Durban just before their tour, and it has left them 14^th on the URC log, six points off the top eight.

That means things aren’t in their hands any more, and that along with winning their final four pool matches, they will need some assistance from other teams in the competition if they are to make the knockouts.

The Lions also have a few injury worries to contend with. Springbok loose forward Ruan Venter went off early in their loss against Edinburgh, with a scan needed, and injury-plagued star centre Henco van Wyk, on his return against Cardiff, promptly picked up a foot injury and the severity is unknown.

Biggest worry

But perhaps the biggest worry was coach Ivan van Rooyen’s assertion that the Lions are still trying to find their identity going into the business end of the season, which is a time when they should be well aware of it and firing on all cylinders.

The team will be back at training this week, but have the coming weekend off, so by the time they come face to face with Benetton next weekend, they need to be fully on the same page and ready to fight tooth and nail to try and claw their way into the top eight.

“There are a lot of sore bodies after weeks of playing on the artificial grass. We need to make sure we get them to recover well and get fixed. It is (also) important for us to get home to friends and families,” said Van Rooyen.

“Four home games (left). It’s (now) an opportunity (for us) to keep moving forward, to get to our goal of reaching the top eight. It’s important for us to find our identity and stay true to our identity, especially back home.”

Following the Benetton match the Lions take on Connacht, before having a weekend off when the EPCR semifinals are battled out, with them then closing out the URC pool stage with games against Scarlets and Ospreys on consecutive weekends.

Lions URC home run

• v Benetton on Saturday April 19: Kick-off 1:45pm

• v Connacht on Saturday April 26: Kick-off 4pm

• v Scarlets on Sunday May 11: Kick-off 3pm

• v Ospreys on Saturday May 17: Kick-off 5:15pm