'Breaking the cycle': Lions out to avoid another downward spiral in Galway
SPOTLIGHT: Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie knows that his team will need to start putting 80-minute performances together if they are to make the play-offs in the 2022/23 United Rugby Championship season.
One of the major problems the Lions have this season is that they often play a game of two halves.
In last weekend’s 30-25 Challenge Cup win over the Dragons, the team from Johannesburg were up 27-5 at half-time before they allowed the home team back into the game.
They will now have a tough task on their hands when they face Connacht in Galway in Round 13 of the URC and Fourie knows that his team can’t afford to play in patches against the Irish side.
“It has been our problem the whole season. We come out the first half and we play well and then we come out again the second half and it’s different,” said Fourie.
“We just need to turn around and put two halves together.
“Hopefully this week we sort it out.
“I think we go into a spiral where we do a lot of negative stuff, so we just need to get back to the positives and we just need to break that cycle.
“When we go into that spiral we have to get out of it as soon as possible.”
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Losing ball
Fourie believes his team is giving the opposition too much ball to work with in that second 40.
“It’s a combination of everything. In the first half, we manage the game well and we put them under pressure and then we come out the second half and there are a lot of mistakes that we are making,” Fourie explained.
“We lose the ball after a few phases and then we need to defend again.
“We all know it’s much easier to attack with the ball than defend.
“Defending makes you very tired.
“We need to keep the ball and play in the right areas and put teams under pressure there and get more points.”
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