“There is great fight and great character in the team and a lot to get excited about.”
The Lions as soon as once more got here shut however ended up on the shedding facet after they closed out their first European tour of the present United Rugby Championship (URC) season with a 24-17 defeat to Ulster on the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Friday evening.
It was their fourth loss in 5 matches up to now this season and was their third loss from 4 tour video games, making for a disappointing begin to their marketing campaign.
ALSO READ: Lions goal the fundamentals to give them the leg up towards Ulster
However, each loss has come by seven factors or much less, which means that the Lions have walked away with at the very least one shedding bonus level in every match, whereas their sole win was additionally by a solitary level, once they beat Scarlets 24-23 in Llanelli.
Their different defeats have been by 35-33 towards the Stormers at Ellis Park, by 17-16 towards Edinburgh in Scotland and by 15-10 towards Benetton in Treviso.
Although they’re firmly within the backside half of the desk, the 5 bonus factors picked up from their losses, on prime of the 4 picked up from their sole win, means the Lions are nonetheless inside vary of quite a few groups above them.
Have what it takes
Coach Ivan van Rooyen believes that his facet have proven that they’ve what it takes to stick with a few of the prime sides within the URC and if his group can get these ends in their favour, they’re effectively in with a shout of ending within the prime half of the desk.
“I think we are good enough to compete and I think we are good enough to turn things around and make the top four or five in the competition,” stated Van Rooyen about his expenses efforts after the Ulster loss.
“There are some individual and system errors we still need to work on. But there is great fight and great character in the team and a lot to get excited about. We now need to convert that into wins.”
Speaking concerning the Ulster recreation, Van Rooyen claimed that his group had executed sufficient to have the option to get the win, and that it was just some essential moments that price them ultimately.
“We are obviously disappointed with the result. We felt we were really in the game and gave ourselves an opportunity to come away with a historic win. We were probably one kick off receive and two scrum penalties away from that,” stated Van Rooyen.
“I am immensely proud of the fight shown by the guys and the way they adapted to the conditions. The physicality and tempo that we played with really put them under pressure. But we fell just short with our ability to finish off those big moments.”
Back to SA
The Lions now head again to SA the place they’ve a fantastic probability of constructing some confidence and momentum as they face two of the weaker groups within the competitors in Zebre and Dragons over the subsequent two weekends.
“We are excited to come back home. We have two URC games and then two EPCR (Challenge Cup) games, so there is a lot to look forward to,” stated Van Rooyen.
Source link
