Lions think out of the box in Singapore
SUPER RUGBY REACTION: Lions head coach Swys de Bruin was pleased with the way his team dealt with the Sunwolves’ “organised chaos” in hot and humid conditions in Singapore.
The visitors ran in six tries on their way to a 37-24 victory, which sent them to the top of the South African conference.
The Lions are well known for their enterprising play with ball in hand, but they had to play a bit smarter to deal with the difficult conditions and the Sunwolves’ unpredictable style of play.
“When the conditions are like tonight [Saturday], it’s really hard to handle the ball and play the running rugby, so sometimes you don’t want the ball.
“When I saw the stats just before half-time, I think the Sunwolves had 377 running metres and we were sitting at about 120 and I was quite happy with the state of affairs.
“You don’t just want to play, you rather want them to play and you live off the mistakes.”
De Bruin added: “We want to score tries as well with the brand we play and to inspire people with the way we play.
“Back in South Africa, in the last three years, we scored the most tries and we still want to score tries, so we stand for that.
“But sometimes you got to do it differently. You can’t just do it off keeping the ball because it is very humid, and it is very tough. Tactically I must commend Malcolm [Marx] and Elton [Jantjies] for sticking to the plan that we decided on and it gave us six tries.”
The Lions will have a bye in Round Seven before facing the Sharks in Johannesburg in Round Eight.
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