VIDEO: Have the Lions finally mastered the recipe for success?

WATCH as Lions captain Jaco Visagie and head coach Ivan van Rooyen reveal the tactic that paid off in their 26-7 United Rugby Championship Round 16 victory over Connacht.

The victory over the men from Galway provided the Lions a foot in the door with two rounds to go before the URC play-offs following their shocking home loss to Benetton a week ago.

Lions captain Jaco Visagie revealed what went right for the home side and which tweaks they implemented in their game that contributed to the winning result.

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“We were more conservative. We said [beforehand] that we’re not going to play in our half and we managed that very well,” Visagie said.

“We got the 50-50 [calls] on attack. We wanted to get the five [log] points and unfortunately, we fell short.

“There were some questions on why we opted to go for the posts, but at the end of the day, you have to win first.

“If you look [back] at the game there were opportunities to score tries after we went for the posts.

“Our game management was good. Unfortunately, we squandered some try-scoring opportunities but overall I feel our game management was spot on today [Saturday].”

Visagie also added that sticking to their structure was a key element that played a part in keeping their play-off hopes alive.

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“We focussed firstly on how we wanted to play and how we’re going to achieve it and everyone stuck to that.

“A good start helped us to keep that positive body language. I actually would’ve preferred that we got the kick-off but we didn’t.

“We stuck to our structure. When they kicked onto us, we exited and gave them an attacking line-out and stuck to our defensive plan we worked on during the week and won possession back.

“It was a positive start and from there, everyone bought into the plan.”

Head coach Ivan van Rooyen echoed his captain’s comments.

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“Because our game management was good and we felt in control and we managed to execute what we wanted to do.

“We were quite calm because we felt we executed our plan on attack, defence as well as in our kicking game.

“We felt during the first half that if we had another breakdown or dynamic phase of attack that we could score a couple of tries.

“But we also knew that because we were so clinical that somewhere we would get that opportunity.”