The Lions' beautiful brand
Most teams tend to become more conservative in play-offs, but the Golden Lions have no such plans in the Currie Cup semifinal on Saturday.
The defending champions host Western Province in Johannesburg and coach Johan Ackermann has promised that his team will not deviated from the entertaining brand that brought them success this year.
It is back-to-back semifinals for the Lions, who had to overcome numerous obstacles – including the fact that they were axed from Super Rugby, had a change of coaches in mid-year and the union were involved in a number of-field courtroom drams.
However, under the guidance of veteran prop JC Janse van Rensburg, a captaincy masterstroke by Ackermann, the Lions managed to finish second on the standings and had secured their place in the play-offs two weeks before the conclusion of the league stages of the competition.
"I am very proud of the players," Ackermann told this website, when asked about the team's march to the semifinals.
"This team deserves credit for the quality of the rugby they played and the determination they showed to push through – despite all the off-field distractions and other challenges [the SARU decision to axe them from Super Rugby] and many changes [with the axing of the coaching staff].
"To reach the play-offs after all that takes some doing, but we reached our first goal, to be in the top four.
"Now the real challenge starts."
Ackermann admitted that in play-offs there are simply no margin for error.
"Four tries and exciting rugby won't mean much if the scoreboard is not in your favour," he said, adding: "We know it will be a titanic battle, but at least we are in the semifinals and we have given ourselves a shot [at reaching the Final and winning it again]."
The Lions mentor, who took over in a caretaker capacity while suspended head coach John Mitchell and the Golden Lions Rugby Union worked towards the conclusion of their arbitration case, said they will not change their game plan just because it is the play-offs.
"Our mindset is always to play an attractive brand and I doubt we will move away from that," Ackermann told this website.
"However, if we get a lead like [last] Saturday [against the Blue Bulls], we must just get that balance right between running [playing with ball in hand] and kicking.
"It will also be important not to make unnecessary mistakes.
"We made some silly mistake [in the 29-50 loss] last Saturday, which allowed the Blue Bulls back into the game."
Ackermann chose to leave a number of Springboks on the bench – like Bandise Maku, CJ van der Linde or Pat Cilliers and Butch James – as he opted for the combination that featured for most of the Currie Cup season.
"We do have players who come back that did not play last week, which will bring additional experience," he said of a team that shows 11 changes from last week's outing.
"That is why it would have been great to have [injured] players like Deon [Van Rensburg] and Lionel [Mapoe] on the wings, together with two experienced centres [Jaco Taute and Alwyn Hollenbach].
"That was our goal, but Western Province will also field a very experienced team with plenty of Springboks.
"It will be an intriguing game."
By Jan de Koning
