The Emirates Lions quest to make the top eight of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship relies on something that has evaded them the entire season - consistency.
Joburg, let's do this for our city. 🏟🔥
— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) April 14, 2025
These next few games at Emirates Airline Park are massive for us. Let's fill the Park and get behind our team.
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#LIOvBEN #ForOurCity@vodacom
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As the season comes down to the last four rounds of the URC, the Lions find themselves in a position where they can still qualify via the back door, but only if they are able to secure four consecutive bonus point wins.
And then, it can only get them to 50 points, and in a congested log, that may not be enough to secure a top eight spot, as they found out last year when the same number got them ninth place on points difference.
DID CURRIE CUP FOCUS HURT THEM?
It is an interesting debate whether the Lions decision to play many of their URC players in the Currie Cup is coming back to haunt them now, especially after their Currie Cup final loss at the death to the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
But be that as it may, the last time the Lions were able to put together four consecutive victories was exactly at the start of the URC season when their Currie Cup form turned into URC success and they won their first four games of the season.
The Lions currently sit in 14th spot on the URC log with 30 points and a negative points differential of -34. That leaves them six points behind Benetton, who they face in their first outing of the four this weekend - with the Italians sitting in seventh spot.
While it does underline just how close the log is, and what a bunfight it will be for those top eight places, if the Lions aren’t able to get to the top eight, it will be their fourth consecutive season missing out on an Investec Champions’ Cup place and a place in the URC playoffs.
Considering this is the sixth consecutive season that the Lions have not featured late in any major competition, the pressure on coach Ivan van Rooyen will be immense going into the next month.
But in many respects, the team only has themselves to blame. Their performances, apart from the opening four games, have been disappointing to say the least.
LACK OF CONSISTENCY
The lack of consistency, the passive nature of their defeats and their own injury list has left them with a poor return of just three wins from 10 games in all competitions in 2025, which doesn’t bode well for their quest to find gold in the next four games.
The early exit from the EPCR Challenge Cup has given them an extra week to adjust, and to hone their game plan, with hopefully a few injuries that have recovered in time for the challenge that the Italians will bring.
But far from worrying about the opposition, the Lions have played in fits and starts this season, and their results list shows just how inconsistent they were.
After an opening win against Ulster, a massive 55-point victory over Edinburgh and wins against Dragons and Zebre, most Lions fans expected them to travel to Dublin against a weakened Leinster team and fire a few shots.
What they did was play passively, and hardly had an attacking break, losing 24-6 in a game that Leinster could have sleep walked to victory.
Munster were the next week, and without a coach and in turmoil, without their Irish stars, the Lions were simply their own worst enemies as they lost 17-10, being outscored three tries to one.
It was clear there that perhaps their own ambition to be a top four side was a bit misplaced, and they followed it with an away Challenge Cup loss to Ospreys where they fielded a bunch of young players.
Returning home they beat Pau in their return game, albeit a high-scoring close game, and then disappointed against the Stormers in their last game of the year.
BULLS LOSSES HURT THEM
There was some hope again when they scored a big win over Dragons in their return EPCR Challenge Cup home game, but home and away losses to the Bulls, sandwiched in-between impressive derby wins over the Stormers and Sharks again just highlighted their inconsistency, especially when they were well beaten in the return Sharks game in Durban.
Since then there has been a loss to Cardiff, where they dominated everything except the scoreboard, a 42-0 whitewash at the hands of Glasgow and the loss against Edinburgh in the Round of 16 of the Challenge Cup.
All this leaves the Lions on a four game losing streak, and needing four very good weeks at home to try and make it into the top eight.
If they do sneak in, it would mean an away quarterfinal to Leinster or Glasgow, which on form would not make them anywhere near favourites, but would at least give them a Champions’ Cup place next season.
But failure to be perfect in all four games could leave them with a worse record than last season, and some serious questions about the way forward they would have to face.