‘We know how dangerous they are’

Lions captain Marius Louw is nicely conscious of the problem that awaits his group when they tackle the in-form Bulls of their United Rugby Championship (URC) cross-Jukskei derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulls will likely be favourites, having loved a great season up to now, as they additionally head into the sport off the again of two sturdy Champions Cup wins. In distinction, the Lions head in off two Challenge Cup losses.

However the Johannesburg aspect won’t be overawed by the event after they modified their fortunes in opposition to South African groups with a shocking upset win over the Bulls at Loftus final season.

Thrilling win

On that event the Lions had misplaced 10 straight video games in opposition to SA groups within the URC, and due to a 24-point haul from Sanele Nohamba they managed to clinch a 29-25 victory.

Since then the Lions have been edged 35-33 by the Stormers at Ellis Park, after which stole a late 20-18 win over the Sharks in Durban, exhibiting they are a way more assured group when dealing with their native rivals.

“Over the past few years, the Lions have struggled to win against South African teams, but I think we got that monkey off our back last year,” Louw mentioned.

“So now it’s nearly sticking to our processes and getting a great efficiency in earlier than happening a bit of break.

“They’ve played a lot of good rugby over the last few weeks, especially at home. We know how dangerous they are. They are very physical, and they spread the ball wide with their backs, so it’s definitely going to be a tough one.”

The Lions can even be wanting to bounce again nicely after they let a 28-17 lead slip within the closing 10 minutes to go down 38-28 in opposition to Ospreys of their Challenge Cup conflict at Ellis Park final week.

Disappointing loss

It was a disappointing outcome because the earlier weekend they despatched a ‘B’ group to France for his or her conflict in opposition to Montpellier, which they misplaced 13-3, so their ‘A’ aspect was contemporary and prepared for the Welsh guests however nonetheless managed to capitulate within the closing moments.

“I think we were a little bit disappointed with our performance over the weekend. We had some good entries that we didn’t execute in scoring tries, with some disallowed. Our discipline also wasn’t up to scratch, so that’s definitely something we’ll look into,” mentioned Louw.

“It’s very uncharacteristic of us, particularly within the final 10 minutes, to let go like that. So sure, it was positively a dialogue level going into this weekend.

“We mentioned earlier about our performance. It just comes down to working a little bit harder because we do identify the space and where we need to go. But I think we were also a little bit flat-footed. It’s something we’re going to look into this weekend and make sure our intent is where it needs to be.”