Van Rooyen happy to claim full-house against Ulster
REACTION: Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen was pleased with his charges to bounce back from a disappointing Currie Cup Final defeat to record their first-ever win over Ulster in the United Rugby Championship at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Van Rooyen admitted that there are still a lot of things his side need to rectify going forward, but provided some insight and perspective on the Lions’ bonus-point win.
“The goal was five points, a lot of things to fix but I think if you look at the bigger picture, we had two sessions to prepare, six debutants in the URC for us, first time beating Ulster, then I’ll take the five points with a lot of fixing.”
He admitted that the mood in camp wasn’t all that great following the Currie Cup Final loss, but that their continuity saw them through.
“It was quite somber in the week which was understandable, everyone’s in it and I think that’s where we are currently,” said Van Rooyen.
He added: “Obviously that loss last weekend was tough on everyone, but happy with the little bit of continuity we could get out of that – guys being in form.”
Van Rooyen also touched on his URC debutants and how the Currie Cup helped them prepare for the international tournament.
“The players’ currency is playing minutes and all the debutants had quite a bit of minutes coming into the game, so that obviously helps.”
When asked about the Lions’ conversion rate on opportunities that they created but couldn’t capitalise on, the Lions head coach highlighted the positives out of the situation.
“I think we created a lot of opportunities we couldn’t finish, I think the positive is that we created,” said Van Rooyen.
There’s also a lot of excitement for Van Rooyen on the future of his side with the players he has at his disposal.
“We’re really excited on where we are with our group, guys like Quan [Horn], Henco [Van Wyk] and Francke [Horne], they’re all between 23 and 25 years old with heaps of experience, quality world class players that’s coming through.”
No.8 and captain Francke Horne provided some insight on what it was like to play at 13.00 in the heat at altitude.
“I must say 13.00 is a bit of a weird time, I don’t think I played at 13.00 since junior level so it was a bit tough but we’ll be better for next week playing at 13.45 which is a great preparation.”
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Van Rooyen has confirmed that there will be returning players but they won’t necessarily be available to face Edinburgh this coming Saturday.
“There’s a group of four or five guys that trained with us on Thursday and Friday, possibly they can be back within the next two weeks but we’ll have to go through the medical processes.”
The head coach also gave his thoughts on his side’s soft moments of conceding points before and after the half-time break.
“You’re never going to want to concede [points] five minutes pre half-time, and you’ll always want to probably see if you can score first points after half-time,” said Van Rooyen.
“We spoke about and worked on that quite a bit, but to concede just before and after [half-time] obviously is something we’ll have a look at and also probably the manner we conceded it,”
“We really worked hard for 39 minutes and to let it slip in the last minute and then go rest for 12 minutes, come out and let it slip [concede] there, so it’s something we’ll look at as a team and we’ll try to rectify as quick as possible.”
