VIDEO: Lack of 'maturity' a problem for Lions
REACTION: Lions coach Mzwakhe Nkosi will be hoping his side can show some more maturity when they come up against the Pumas in the Currie Cup in Nelspruit on Friday.
The Johannesburg side started their 2023 Currie Cup campaign with a 28-44 defeat to Western Province at Ellis Park over the weekend.
The game was virtually done and dusted at the end of the first half with the Capetonians outplaying the hosts to go into the break leading 34-14.
However, the Lions showed some more fight in the second 40.
“The point of difference between us and Western Province was that they won the arm-wrestle,” said Nkosi.
“If you look at their maul, it functioned really well.
“Our discipline allowed them to get into our 22 and the penalty count in the first half was seven to two.
“It allowed them to nudge the ball into the corner and score a couple of maul tries.
“If you look at the second half, I think our penalty count was something like three, but I guess the game was won by then.
“The second-half score was 14-10 [in favour of the Lions] and that is a whole lot better than what we did in the first half.
“Our discipline just wasn’t good enough and we allowed them free 22-metre entries.”
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Scrum problems
One of the main areas of concern for the Lions will be the scrum.
They had some experience in the form of Ruan Smith, Jaco Visagie and Sithembiso Sithole, but they were put under immense pressure by Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, Scarra Ntubeni and Kwenzo Blose.
“It [discipline] is disappointing, especially a couple of scrum penalties we conceded,” Nkosi explained.
“I think we had an experienced front row and their penalties let us down.
“[Out wide] I thought one or two [penalties] were quite harsh on the edge in terms of our wings, who I thought had full rights to the ball, but that is the way it was adjudicated.
“We got to show a whole lot more maturity from a discipline point of view. That is the message that has to go out to our guys.”
Despite the defeat, Nkosi was proud of some of his players in the match.
“There were quite a number of players who put up their hands,” said Nkosi.
“I thought Darrien Landsberg ran the line-out magnificently.
“I thought Nico Steyn when he came on was exceptional.
“Tyler Bocks got us over the gain line and set really good targets.
“Jarrod Cairns was good from the bench, so there are quite a number of positives we can take out of it.”
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