AUDIO: Cash's ifs and buts
LISTEN as Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen speaks about his side’s missed opportunities throughout the season.
The Lions are set to finish outside play-off contention for the fourth consecutive United Rugby Championship season following their 19-32 defeat at the hands of the Scarlets at Ellis Park on Sunday.
The Johannesburg-based side along with the Stormers had the opportunity to seal a top-eight place in the URC with four consecutive home matches lined up.
The Stormers managed to qualify with one round to go following victories over Connacht, Benetton and the Dragons.
The Lions, however, lost to Benetton and the Scarlets and could find themselves finishing their worst-ever URC season to date should they fail to topple the Ospreys. A team who has been their bogey side recently this coming Saturday.
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Van Rooyen lamented his side’s missed opportunities throughout the season and dwelled on the what-ifs should the ball have bounced their way.
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“It’s a huge disappointment [missing the play-offs]. We set our targets and goals on it. I feel we started [the season] off well enough.
“It’s always tough between January and March when you’re bouncing between two tournaments with vastly different conditions and challenges.
“We felt we were in a position to get ourselves there [in the play-offs]. Just one too many results went against us.
“I told the referee today [Sunday] if we scored the fourth try last week [against Connacht] we were in the hunt to be seventh or eighth place on the table. That’s how small the margins are.
“If we scored those two [disallowed] tries against Cardiff, which I still believe were tries but there wasn’t enough video evidence to prove that it was scored.
“We potentially could’ve still have ended fifth or sixth if you add those points. That’s how small the margins are and what makes this such a great competition.
“It’s double zero point one percent in every aspect of the game. It’s great for a spectacle. Obviously, we’re not consistently good enough to be there [in the play-offs] yet.
“There is a lot of learning for us as a group and as individuals. I don’t like to say we are currently [a] young [team] because of a couple of the senior guys that are injured.”
