The team that wins the “Big moments” will be the one that walks away with the honours as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship returns this weekend with the derby match between the Lions and the Sharks.
Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher believes that the Sharks are going to be desperate to get the win, especially after losing the last two games between the two sides at Ellis Park by a big margin and with coach JP Pietersen being appointed fulltime on Wednesday, they will get to Joburg ready to take revenge for their last minute loss in Durban in December.
Loubscher knows that the Lions stand on the precipice of six home games that will determine whether or not they can make the top eight for the first time in the URC and key to doing that is to win the derby games - this weekend against the Sharks and next against the Stormers.
And he knows that this weekend’s game is going to be tough and physical - not remarkable to predict - but basically like every other South African derby. Plainly put, if you don’t win the physical battle, you won’t even get close.
“Yeah, I think when it is a South African derby, the first box that you have to pick is probably the physicality. We know they're going to be desperate. They'll be desperate to rectify the last performance,” Loubscher said.
“But so are we. Our performance is not good enough from our side. We want to make sure that we perform better on the day and execute our objectives.”
While the Sharks have changed somewhat since Pietersen took over, Loubscher knows the Lions need to get their game plan right if they are to have any chance of winning.
“Internally, there's not a big focus for us. As I said, we want to make sure that there's a focus on us, our tempo, our togetherness, our toughness. Get a big emphasis on that, get our execution right. We know it's going to be tough. It's a physical battle. We always want to start well in everything in the derby.I think Saturday will be like every other day. It will be tough, it will be physical. But we want to make sure that whatever opportunities we create, we want to finish them.”
'FORCE OUR GAME PLAN'
With that in mind the big moments are what will count. In Durban young Haashim Pead’s individual moment of brilliance won them the game, and Loubscher is counting on something similar again.
“Against them down in Durban it was the last minute of the game, we had opportunity and took it and I think it's going to come down to that again. Obviously they will look at the game and what we need to fix. We need to come up with different plans.
“There's a point of difference there in the way they play (under Pietersen). We need to make sure that we start well against them. Like with any derby, they bring a lot of physicality and we expect them to change a lot of things in the way they play. From our side, it's to handle that and make sure we force our game plan of the day.
The Lions will look to move Ruan Venter - back from suspension - to lock for the game, with SA under-20 star Batho Hlekani likely to start from the bench.
“We are privileged to have both of them. We know when they have the ball in hand, they get us over the advantage line,” Loubscher explained.
“We might include Ruan in the starting line-up, with Batho then coming off the bench. We see Ruan as someone who can be utilised at blindside flank and No 4 lock, because he is comfortable in both positions. It depends on how we need him on Saturday.”
The Lions are set to name their side for the clash on Friday.