The game is 'so lekker' when you win
The Lions may be out of the United Rugby Championship play-off race, but there is plenty riding on their last two games of the season.
They host Italian outfit Benetton at Ellis Park on Saturday and complete their obligations when traveling to Newport for an encounter with the Dragons on May 21.
These two games could serve as the ‘launch pad’ for future success.
Scrum guru Julian Redelinghuys said they want to continue putting in place structures that can serve them well in the long run, even though winning remains part of the process.
He spoke about the desire to ‘improve’ – having lost their last two outings, following an impressive four-match winning run at home.
Having beaten Cardiff, Munster, Ospreys and Edinburgh, the Lions lost the Sharks (in a Durban monsoon) and Connacht (to a last-minute penalty).
Apart from improving the quality of their game, the Lions are desperate to get back in the ‘W’ column again.
“We all know, the game is ‘so much more lekker’ when you win,” the 32-year-old former Springbok prop quipped.
He added that focusing on the result only won’t necessary get you over the line.
“There are a lot of processes and aspects of the game we have focussed on this week,” he said, adding that they are planning for the future.
“We are focusing on things we would like to improve in the long-term,” Redelinghuys said.
He spoke about the ‘decision-making’ that hampered the team in the last two outings.
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“It is dangerous for a prop to start talking about game plans,” he quipped, adding the decision-making of the game drivers is key.
“The structures on attack and kick-off receive needs attention.
“We are building a system that we can take forward.”
The other key aspect is to catch up to the ‘streetwise’ nature of the European teams.
Having played domestic derbies for most of 2020 and 2021, they now get to experience a whole new range of tactics – such as Connacht’s obviously deliberate ploys of slowing down to negate the impact of altitude.
“That is an aspect that we can improve on,” he said of tactics they encountered for the first time in the URC – how teams manage the tempo of the game.
Redelinghuys said most of the European outfits have a number of internationals that provide guidance to the younger players and adapt to those strategies.
“In [most of] the South African teams the dynamics are a bit different, with most of the [international] players playing abroad.
“They have guys with Test match experience and bring that into the domestic teams.
“As I have said previously, we have learned so much,” he said, adding that SA teams will have their first proper pre-season in years once the current URC season is completed.
“That is normally when you implement all the news systems and processes,” Redelinghuys said of the pre-season programme.
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