Ying and Yang.
Opposite but interconnected forces. And a perfect way to describe the Emirates Lions start to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
As the tournament breaks for the November international window, the Lions sit scratching their heads as to where exactly they are.
While few will argue that they’ve been a lot better than in season one of URC, their own Jeckle and Hyde performances at home have seen them not win a home game but score three away victories, something that is the total opposite of what we’ve seen with most sides in the competition thus far.
On tour they showed grit, fight and determination. At home they’ve played in spurts but fell away in the contest when it mattered most.
The Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen has spoken about how they are a bit frantic, how they need to build an innings but on Saturday against the Stormers they did that, managing the game superbly in the first half, before falling to pieces as the Stormers bench drove their team home in the second.
Ying and Yang. A story of the Lions season.
As Van Rooyen explained in trying to figure out what went wrong against the Stormers, it was like every other home game thus far in the competition.
“Ying and Yang. It was a complete turnaround. I thought we had control in the first 40 and we lost control in the second 40. If your lineout then doesn’t function, then you can’t build pressure back on them,” Van Rooyen said.
“In the end you end up playing on the wrong side of the field and defending. Normally that combination doesn’t work so well.”
Van Rooyen said it may be a simple lack of experience but it was more than that.
“The easy answer would be yes, but it is more a lack of execution probably. Sometimes you feel under more pressure than you actually are. Just the ability to put the pressure back onto the Stormers. Sometimes you have a spare second or two where you can put the pressure back on. You can say it is a lack of experience but it is more execution.”
And now with three weeks to ponder the results and try to figure out how to turn it around, this was not how Van Rooyen wanted to go into the November break.
“These three weeks are going to be long. To sit on a win is a bit different to sit on a loss. Our first two games back are against international opponents so the best time to fix it is the next two games especially,” he said.
Those two games, against Dragons and Scarlets respectively will give the coaching side a chance to replicate their form on tour at home, and the next three weeks will give them some time to agonise on how they can be more consistent and chase that first victory at home.
The break will also give some weary bodies a chance to rest, as the Lions have virtually remained unchanged throughout the first part of the season.
But while the joy of the away tour results may have dissipated, the tournament is a marathon, not a sprint, and while the Lions may have found more yang than ying, they still have a long road ahead.
And it is crucial they get their split personality right for when they take the field again.