The Stormers are set to arrive at Ellis Park a “dangerous” and “desperate” side following their back-to-back losses to the Sharks, and the Lions believe they are ready for them.
The Ellis Park side is on a high after a comprehensive win over the Sharks last weekend and now await John Dobson’s side in a return derby after losing the away leg in Cape Town in December.
But there is now a new sense of confidence in the Lions’ set-up. Their loss to the Bulls a few weeks back was, according to the team at least, a massive turning point, and they have already seen their plans in action in the Sharks win.
Assistant coach Jaque Fourie believes that while his side can’t get ahead of themselves, there is a new sense of purpose in the camp.
“Like we said earlier in the week, you know, we haven't won anything, so we have to be tough at training, we have to lift our standards, because we know the Stormers are coming here desperate.
DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS
“They have now lost two in a row against the Sharks, so they're coming here desperate. And a desperate team is a team that can be dangerous, so we need to be ready for that,” Fourie said.
While the Lions have now given themselves a chance to win the South African shield for the first time, they have a bigger goal of qualifying for the playoffs for the first time as well, and believe the latter goal is bigger than anything.
Qualifying for the playoffs would give them qualification for the Investec Champions’ Cup as well, which would be exceptional for the side. But the Lions’ aren’t counting their chickens yet.
“Yeah, I think we've fallen in that trap in previous years that we look ahead to it, we haven't won anything yet. So we're taking it game by game, whatever happens for us, we said it's in our hands, we just need to win our next few games. So that is the focus, is winning the next few games, not the South African conference.”
The big change came after their lacklustre performance against the Bulls. Fourie spoke openly about how they needed to change and they are already seeing the benefits of it.
“I think we would be stupid if we came that Monday and we did the same stuff. There were a few things that we had to change to make us better. And sometimes, when you keep winning, sometimes you keep doing the same stuff. So we came back here to the office, there was stuff that we had to change, and we did that, and it made us better. So hopefully we can just continue building on that.”
CHANGING THE MINDSET
Part of that was the mindset of playing to win, not trying to stave off another loss.
“Well, I think Coach Cash (van Rooyen) mentioned it, we sometimes get to Saturday and we play not to lose. I think our mindset had to change. We want to play to win. So, after the Bulls, we came here Monday and realised it. Even at the game, we were standing there and we said to each other, it looks like the game plan is out of the window.
“The guys weren’t doing anything we trained, but hopefully that was just a one-off thing. We came back and we said, listen guys, we know how to play rugby, we know how to tackle, we know how to do stuff. So, let's get back to our basics, doing our basics well.
“The week that we had off after the Bulls, like I said, we changed a lot of stuff that we had to change and hopefully we can build on that just to get better and better every weekend.”
The Lions will be hoping to take that forward again this coming weekend and get another big scalp.