One of the Lions’ main traits this season on the sphere has been their character.
Lions scrumhalf Nico Steyn has recommended his teammates for the character they confirmed once they have been below siege in their 13-3 loss to Top14 outfit Montpellier in the Challenge Cup on Saturday.
Steyn and Co knew they might be up in opposition to it once they travelled to France with out their regulars to tackle a group that had the likes of Cobus Reinach and Jan Serfontein in the ranks.
Their earlier journey to France had seen them stroll away with a formidable 28-12 win over Marvin Orie’s Perpignan.
This time round, the Lions discovered the going onerous in opposition to Montpellier, who as soon as gained the Challenge Cup below former Springbok coach Jake White in 2016. The climate circumstances and the tempo at which Montpellier performed the sport put the Lions below the pump.
‘Character’
Despite being put below stress, the Lions by no means backed down and have been aggressive all through the match.
“One massive positive we can take out of this game was our defensive effort,” Steyn informed the Lions’ media division.
“I feel each single man on the sphere simply scoped their man and made the punches. They saved coming at us, and we didn’t stand again. I feel we will actually take that ahead as a group.
“That shows the character we have in the team, the character we showed to just keep on fighting although the scoreboard was not on our side,” he mentioned.
Steyn, who bought a uncommon probability to start out for the Lions, famous that their self-discipline was their downfall and is one thing they should repair going ahead.
“Yes, we made a lot of errors, we spoke about discipline, and discipline was one of the major things that cost us the game. That’s on us, we can fix that, it’s in our hands, it’s controllable,” Steyn mentioned.
Last 16 qualification
The Lions had their place in the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup confirmed, together with their Pool 2 rivals Montpellier, Benetton, and the Ospreys.
Ivan van Rooyen’s facet will play their remaining pool sport on Sunday afternoon at Ellis Park in opposition to Ospreys. Although each groups have already certified, the match will not be a lifeless rubber.
The Lions and Ospreys are equal on 9 factors in Pool 1 and they are going to be hoping to get the utmost factors on provide to extend their tally to get a great seeding for the final 16 draw.
Source link
