Irish Gaunlet Won’t Phase Lions

Ivan van Rooyen says his players are keeping their feet firmly on the ground as they prepare to complete the regular Vodacom United Rugby Championship season with an Irish triple header.

The Fidelity SecureDrive Lions are in uncharted waters right now, lying in fourth place in the table after winning their last five league matches. They have never been in such an elevated position before at this stage of the campaign and it has given them a golden opportunity of reaching the play-offs for the first time.

But head coach Van Rooyen is well aware of the size of the obstacles that stand in their way.

First up, this weekend, they play hosts to Connacht Rugby, who are on an even longer winning run in the league after six straight victories.

Then they head off to Ireland to take on two more Play-Off contenders, Leinster Rugby and Munster Rugby, in Dublin and Limerick respectively. “The moment you preview these teams, it gets you humble really quickly,” said Van Rooyen “Connacht beat the Stormers in Cape Town last weekend. They are a desperate team that pride themselves on hard work. Then we’ve got Leinster and Munster away, so there’s no reason not to have your feet on the ground.”

While the Lions are staying humble, there is no doubting the strides they have made. Last season, they finished 11th in the URC on 40 points, with eight victories from their 18 matches. With three games still to play, they have already surpassed that this term, having won nine and drawn one for a tally of 48.

They have also scored more points than any other team (475), while they are joint top for tries alongside the Vodacom Bulls with 65, demonstrating their attacking potency. On top of that, they have the league’s leading points scorer in outside-half Chris Smith (135), while full-back Quan Horn is third for metres gained (734) and flanker Ruan Venter is in the top five for carries (155).

So, just what does Van Rooyen put the obvious advances his team has made down to? “It’s probably just consistency, an alignment in what we want to do, what does it look like and what does it take,” he said. “The more clear you are about what you want to do and your identity, the easier it is. A lot of the time, you want to look at the outcome, but you must look at the process and what made the difference or what had the effect. I think the coaches and the players are really aligned about what we want and what we need.

“The players have also got more experience now.”

He added: “I am extremely proud of the hard work and effort. It’s our last home game coming up in Johannesburg against Connacht now. Hopefully we can make our supporters proud.”

Adding his thoughts on why the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions have performed so well this season, skipper Francke Horn said: “We are sticking to our structures, we are not getting individual, we play as a team and hopefully the people out there can see we have a really strong bond. We are playing together, we play off each other’s shoulders and are just working really hard for one another.”

The Lions produced arguably their most eye-catching display of the season last weekend when they scored eight tries in beating league leaders Glasgow Warriors 54-12 at Ellis Park.

“What an unbelievable performance. Credit to the guys,” said No 8 Horn. “Sometimes you look at all the beautiful tries and you forget the hard work the boys put in to be solid on defence and to secure the ball and then on turnover ball to be sure you are next to the other guy to give the other guys tries.”

There were some outstanding individual performances against Glasgow, with Ruan Venter making more carries (20) than any other player in the round and winger Erich Cronje topping both the tackle and turnover count.

There was also a try double for centre Henco van Wyk, who said: “We’ve worked hard over the past couple of weeks and it paid off. “We play smart rugby. One of our focus points is starting well to set us up for the rest of the game. Then, when we are ahead, we still stick to our structures. We keep it simple and just focus on ourselves.”

Now it’s on to the crucial Jo’burg clash with Connacht as the Vodacom URC’s two in-form teams go head to head. “This is our last home game, so hopefully people will come out with their friends and family and let’s make it a big one,” said skipper Horn. “We really appreciate the support.”