VIDEO - Van Rooyen: 'That Stormers game could get really spicy'
SPOTLIGHT: After their defeat to Munster at home last weekend, the Lions will have it all to do to qualify for the United Rugby Championship play-offs.
After thrashing an understrength Leinster side 44-12 in Round 14, the Lions were brought back down to earth with a 13-33 defeat against a star-studded Munster outfit in Johannesburg.
That result left Ivan van Rooyen’s side in 11th position and five points behind eighth-placed Benetton.
There are just three rounds left and the Lions will have home matches against Cardiff and log leaders Glasgow Warriors in the next two rounds before the regular season ends with an away match against the Stormers.
The Lions could be heading to Cape Town at the end of May needing a win against their South African rivals to secure a place in the quarterfinals.
“Eight or 10 points could potentially sneak you in there,” said Van Rooyen
“For us, it’s three games left. Win all three and all we can control is us.
“If we do what we have to do here [at Elis Park] then that Stormers game could get really spicy.”
Van Rooyen said his team will definitely be taking the lessons that they learnt in the defeat to Munster into their next three games.
“We basically got to win all three probably,” the coach added. “It’s the whole cliché of sticking to processes and why I want to say that is because Munster didn’t do anything that we didn’t expect.
“It’s just the execution.
“We’ve got to minimise errors. We need to recreate the pressure in training sessions as much as possible.
“We’ve got to keep on showing the right picture of what we can expect in defence and attack from the opposition and then be more clinical from our side.
“They [Munster] won the small and the big moments, so the team that dominates more tends to win those small battles.
“There are a lot of lessons and I know it doesn’t sound nice, but we just have to be better.
“I don’t think we were out-passioned or outplayed in terms of building phases, momentum and line-breaks.
“We just have to be clinical with the defensive breakdown and keeping our ball on attack.”
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Main image: @THESTORMERS
