Lions to plug their porous defence
SUPER RUGBY SPOTLIGHT: The Lions are famed for their attack, which has made them universally popular and took them to three consecutive finals.
It is one of the principal goals of coach Swys de Bruin, who was proud of the fact that their all-out attacking approach saw them top the try-scoring table at the end of the league stages in 2018 – a position they shared with the back-to-back champion Crusaders.
They both scored 77 tries in 16 matches, an average of almost five tries per match.
The Crusaders added another nine tries in the quarterfinals and semifinals, while the Lions scored 10 – to edge ahead of their meeting in the final. The Crusaders outscored the Lions four tries to two (in a 37-18 win) to edge ahead.
However, it is on defence where the Crusaders really showed up the Lions.
They conceded just 39 in the regular season, with another five tries leaked in the play-offs. The Lions coughed up an alarming 55 tries in the regular season and another 10 in the play-offs.
De Bruin admitted defence was a priority for his team in their build-up to the 2019 season.
“We did a proper analysis of what went wrong [in 2018],” the Lions mentor said.
“We are not going to change much.
“We did score the most tries up to the Final, then the Crusaders went past us in the Final,” he said, adding: “That was our aim, to score the most tries.
“[However,] the big lesson is that we need to improve our defensive system.”
De Bruin further praised defence coach Joey Mongalo for his work in getting the Lions defence ready for the challenge which awaits them in their opening Super Rugby game of the season.
“Joey is working very hard and the emphasis is a lot on defence this year,” the coach said.
“I must say we want to improve that department [defence],” explained De Bruin.
The Lions have two warm-up games before they kick off their Super Rugby campaign against the Jaguares, in Buenos Aires on February 16.
First up is a clash against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday, which will be followed by a game against the Sharks in Cape Town on February 3.
By Josh Isaacson
@isaacson_j
@rugby365com
