Cash: 'We can sulk or fight'

REACTION: Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted his team were well below their best after suffering a crushing 15-57 defeat to the Bulls in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Johannesburg side conceded eight tries and managed just two in a one-sided encounter that exposed several areas requiring urgent attention.

With little time to dwell on the defeat, the Lions will depart for France on Monday to begin their Investec Champions Cup campaign against La Rochelle.

Van Rooyen acknowledged that his side had plenty to fix, particularly on defence and at scrum time, but insisted they needed to respond collectively rather than dwell on the disappointment.

“It’s one of those frustrating days where even when they drop the ball and we’ve got five guys around it, we seem to knock it on,” he said.

The injury to prop Sebastian Lombard also proved costly.

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Bulls unleash eight-try blitz to demolish Lions

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“I think that Sebastian’s early injury eventually played a part in the scrums, if I refer to the last 20 to 30 minutes,” Van Rooyen said.

The Lions struggled to retain possession and build attacking pressure, while the yellow card to Morne van den Berg proved particularly damaging as the Bulls scored two tries from first-phase opportunities during that period.

Lombard’s availability for the Champions Cup opener remains uncertain after the prop left the field in the opening 10 minutes.

“He seems to have a foot injury. We are jumping on a plane Monday night, so we have to assess quickly,” Van Rooyen said.

“He’s in a boot currently, so obviously the extent of it and exactly what it is, we don’t know yet, but it looks quite sore.”

Van Rooyen demands improvements

While disappointed with his own team’s performance, Van Rooyen was quick to acknowledge the quality of the Bulls, who capitalised on their momentum and physicality to dominate proceedings.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the Bulls. I think they were exceptional,” he said, highlighting the difficulty of containing the Bulls when they gained momentum and began carrying hard around the corner.

“It felt like we played against 10 or 12 Springboks today, and they were good,” he said.

“But in saying that, with all the respect in the world, I thought we were really below par. A lot of the fixes, a lot of the things we need to fix, will be on us.”

Defensive shortcomings will be a particular focus ahead of the trip to France, with Van Rooyen expecting La Rochelle to scrutinise the footage of Saturday’s defeat.

“The first fix for us will be our defence, which we haven’t really been exploited on thus far this season,” he said.

He admitted that the defeat had delivered some painful lessons, but hoped the timing would allow his team to learn and adapt quickly.

“We did learn big lessons today. Never nice to learn lessons like this. Never nice to take 50. Is there any good time to take 50? I don’t think so,” he said.

“But if you have to choose it early, take it early and learn the lessons, and hopefully we can adapt quickly.”

The Lions coach acknowledged that the physical challenge would not ease in the weeks ahead, with further demanding encounters against Leinster and Ospreys on the horizon.

Despite the scale of the loss, Van Rooyen stressed that the Lions could not afford to become consumed by the disappointment with their European campaign fast approaching.

“I think it’s up to us to make a decision. We can really sulk about this, or we can collectively pull in and make a decision,” he said.

“But there’s no decision to be made. It’s just to get collectively back onto the horse and jump on the plane and go fight that battle.”

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Horn warns Lions against overreacting

Lions captain Francke Horn echoed his coach’s sentiments, pointing to the team’s slow starts as a recurring concern over the opening three rounds of the URC.

“If you give the Bulls 31 points in the first half, with, I think, three tries that didn’t go past two phases, that puts you under pressure,” Horn said.

“Now you try things and you try harder, and sometimes the easy solution is to actually try less and just do your job better.

“It would also be a shame if the one result determines the whole of the next seven months,” he said.

“Knowing the team and knowing the guys that we have, it won’t happen.”

The Lions captain said the squad would need to take the lessons from Saturday’s performance into their European campaign, with composure and discipline essential to their response.

“We just need to be more focused, more clinical. And if things go a bit bad, just calm down and get cool heads and don’t try harder, if that makes sense.”