Lions skipper Marius Louw was disappointed with Sunday’s loss to Ospreys, but coach Ivan van Rooyen downplayed its potential impact on the clash with the Vodacom Bulls this week.
Ospreys scored three tries in the last 10 minutes to come from behind and beat the Lions 38-28 in the Challenge Cup match at Ellis Park. The Lions relinquished a four-point lead at half time, yet still advanced to the playoffs and will travel to face Benetton in April.
Speaking post-match on Sunday, Louw cited inconsistency as a key issue in their performance. Louw, who scored a try but was also yellow-carded in the match, emphasised the team’s struggle to maintain consecutive positives, allowing Ospreys to capitalise in the final quarter.
“Our defence in the beginning is what helped us. We got turnovers and we got to play in their half,” he told reporters. “For me, it was not having consecutive positives.
“There was a positive, then a negative and then a positive and then two negatives, which led to them scoring.
“We just need to be a little more consistent in getting positives in a row.”
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Van Rooyen, though, remained optimistic, and highlighted the need to understand the challenges of playing at a venue like Ellis Park. He considered the setback a reminder to improve systems, and affirmed the Lions’ readiness for Saturday’s Jukskei derby at Loftus Versfeld in the Vodacom URC.
“To be honest, it’s not a wake-up call before the Bulls game because I’ve got no doubt that we will be ready for it,” he explained. “If you want to call it a wake-up call, then you can’t expect to just go through the emotions.
“It is a high-performance sport, so every team that you play against will want to beat you.
“We must understand that an iconic stadium [Ellis Park] like this is going to lift your opponents’ performance, so I would rather say it’s a wake-up call for us to get our systems going and more consistently.”
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