Lions ready for month-long road trip in search of European glory

REACTION: The Lions will depart on a road trip this week as they look to build on their unbeaten start in the United Rugby Championship.

Back-to-back bonus-point victories over Ulster (35-22) and Edinburgh (55-21) at Ellis Park have the Lions sitting pretty as one of only three unbeaten teams after three rounds – along with the table-topping Leinster and the Bulls.

However, the real test will come when they start touring.

The Lions start their URC road trip when they face off against the Dragons at Rodney Parade next Sunday, October 13, followed by encounters with Zebre and Leinster.

They return to South Africa for the November break, but hit the road again late in November to face Munster.

They also start their European campaign with an away game against Ospreys in Swansea, before they finally return to Ellis Park on December 14 – a Challenge Cup Round Two game against Section Paloise.

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Lions coach Ivan Van Rooyen described the eight-try rout of Edinburgh as decent – a first half in which they showed great “intent and intensity” to build up a URC record 48-0 lead by half-time.

The 55-21 scoreline was Edinburgh’s heaviest loss since the URC began in 2021 and the first time they had conceded more than 50 points in a match since Racing 92 beat them 56-3 in the last 16 of the Champions Cup in Paris in the 2020-21 season.

Edinburgh at least stemmed the bleeding in the second half, scoring three converted tries, but it was too little too late against a side who have never made it to the URC play-offs.

“We are happy with the five points,” Van Rooyen said ahead of the team’s departure, adding: “There were a lot of good aspects to our game, but lot of things to fix as well.”

A message #ForOurCity from Edwill van der Merwe. #ForOurCity #LionsPride🦁 pic.twitter.com/VNzAju4yFQ

— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) October 6, 2024

Previous matches between the Lions and Edinburgh have been close affairs and there had been little to suggest the Scottish outfit would crumble in the manner they did.

Sean Everitt’s side beat them 17-16 at home last season.

The year before that, a late penalty from Gianni Lombard gave the Lions a 22-19 victory in Edinburgh and in the inaugural season of the URC, the Lions won 15-9 at Ellis Park.

All tight games between sides who last season were scrapping for a top-eight place.

On Saturday, the gulf looked huge and Edinburgh now find themselves sitting second bottom of the URC with no wins from three.

It is not about to get any easier.

For the third week in a row, they will face South African opposition, with the Stormers due in Scotland this weekend.

Everitt needs a big reaction from his players to try to get their season back on track and ensure his position doesn’t come under further scrutiny.

Everitt spoke afterwards of his frustration at his players’ failure to execute their game plan.

Edinburgh’s loose kicking gave the Lions all the ball they needed and they exploited it ruthlessly and, at times, with impressive panache.

Rabz Maxwane scored a hat-trick, the other wing, Edwill van der Merwe, bagged a double, and there were also tries for Quan Horne, Rynhardt Jonker and Francke Horn.

“You learn a lot when you win and you learn more when you lose,” Everitt said afterwards.

“You never want to learn while you’re losing.

“I think we’ve got to look at the two halves separately and say, well, why did it work in the second half and not work in the first half?

“I think it’s blatantly obvious that we conceded five transition tries, so we know we need to respect the ball more.

“We know that we can’t give opposition opportunities like we did. We can’t give opposition field position like we did through giving away penalties and conceding turnovers.

“When we tightened the game up and we took the bull by the horns and credit to the leaders for that in the second half, this team showed it can perform.”