Ivan van Rooyen was delighted with the efforts “between the four white lines” from the Lions as they shook off a difficult week with a bonus-point win over Glasgow Warriors on Saturday.
Trailing in the opening minutes, the Lions roared back into the game with five tries to beat Glasgow 35-24 in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Ellis Park.
Lions wing Edwill van der Merwe and fullback Quan Horn, though, saw yellow for deliberate infringements, but a victory was all the hosts wanted in a week where IOL reported that head coach Van Rooyen recently scored a rating “between three and four out of 10” after players were asked to give him a grade.
Speaking post-match on Saturday, ‘Cash’ told reporters: “The forwards and the inside backs had a massive work rate, and a massive effort today – Marra [skipper Marius Louw], Manny [Rass]. At one stage, it felt like we were playing with about 10 or 11 forwards: just carrying the ball up, trying to get us momentum and trying to get us quick ball.
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“I was immensely proud of that. That’s why I say when you lose your outside backs especially, there is a lot of work that needs to happen on the inside to be okay defensively and on attack.
“Massive effort from the guys, and I’m really proud of that. There were one or two good discussions in the week around that, and the only way we can talk and show how the guys care is between the four white lines.
“So, I’m really proud of the guys. Their effort and care was special today. So, very proud of them, and obviously relieved to win at home against a quality Glasgow team that last lost about 10 games ago.”
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Languishing four spots from the foot of the overall URC standings, the 12th-placed Lions will now regroup and know they have plenty of work before a trip to Loftus Versfeld to face Jukskei rivals the Vodacom Bulls next Saturday.
“We’re at a place at the moment where we know every game is a fight,” Van Rooyen added.
“But for us as a team, we know that the only way we’re going to fight better is with our backs to the wall.
“We know our record against the Bulls, and against SA teams is going to be spoken about this week, and we know we’ve got to fix that.
“But there’s a lot of positives and momentum that we should take out of this game … and going to Loftus next week, I always that if you can sleep in your own bed the night before the game it does make a difference.
“So it’s important we prepare well again this week and identify what’s working for us and what we need to fix, and if we can capitalise on this momentum it’s going to be a great game next week.”
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