Lions looking to hit a 'home run'
The Lions may be sitting second from bottom on the Super Rugby standings, but they could still produce their best-ever season since their split from the Cheetahs.
With three matches at Ellis Park to come the Lions feel they can hit a real home run.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann, speaking to rugby365 ahead of their Round 16 encounter with the Bulls on Saturday, said the men from Johannesburg are determined to finish strongly in their final run-in – which will see them play one game before the June break and then face the Rebels and Cheetahs when the competition resumes in July.
"We certainly want to put out better performances than what we did on tour," Ackermann said of his team's just-completed month-long trip to Australasia.
"If we win our three remaining games, to go with the four victories earlier in the season, it will give us seven in the 'W' column," Ackermann said, adding that it would be an "awesome" performance for his young team.
The Lions have never won seven games in a season since the split from the Cheetahs.
The Cats won seven in both 2000 and 2001, when they played in the semifinals, but the most the Lions have one since the split was five, in 2007.
"We are certainly not happy with where we are on the standings and the way we played [on tour]," Ackermann told rugby365.
"Eighteen of these guys went on tour [abroad] for the first time, there were players from the Pumas and we recruited players from other unions.
"I feel it is a good start [for the Lions] in our return to Super Rugby. We can take these lessons with us into next year," the coach said, adding that they are determined to make Ellis Park a tough place for visiting teams to get wins.
The men from Johannesburg could also do with a bit more luck, given some of the ignominious calls from match officials in Australasia.
However, they also looked internally for the cause of their defeats.
"We believe, every time we go onto the field, that our preparation was accurate and we have a chance to win," the Lions mentor said.
"However, we seem to have those soft moments in games, like the game against Waratahs. We trailed only 13-17 at half-time and in a 10-minute spell they took the game away from us." he said of 13-41 loss, with the Tahs scoring 24 unanswered points in that spell.
"Against the Force we were in the game and leading 9-3. We received a yellow card and lost momentum.
"The results may not suggest it, but when you look at the tour as a whole – the camaraderie and experience gained [by the players] are invaluable.
"The challenge is to keep that together and make it count on the field.
"I truly believe we could have, and should have, beaten the Highlanders, while last week [against the Force] we also had a great chance of a win.
"We just need to put an 80-minute performance out there and get the balance right. Then, if a few of those 50-50 calls go our way and we don't have those soft moments, then we can cause an upset on Saturday."
Ackermann felt that the competition is much closer this year than it seems on the standings.
"Just look at the Brumbies, after two big defeats, and a few weeks ago they were second on the standings. Now they are seventh.
"Look at what the Hurricanes did to the Chiefs [last week] – the margins are just so close."
By Jan de Koning
