No room for Lions complacency against Sharks
The Lions have no business being complacent against the bottom-placed Sharks in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Lions, who beat the Sharks in their earlier clash in Durban, have much to remedy in the wake of four consecutive defeats, assistant coach Barend Pieterse says.
“If we beat the Bulls in both those games then maybe there might have been room for complacency. Given where we are in the season we can’t be complacent. I don’t believe we are. We’ve had two very good training days this week and three last week.”
He said the Lions have gone through a period of introspection. “We looked at the errors and what went wrong but also what worked. There was also some good things that emerged from those games.”
The point is perhaps further underlined by Pieterse’s view that the Sharks are on an upward curve. They were flat at the start against the Stormers, but gradually sunk their teeth into their opponents in an honourable defeat.
“They showed that against the Stormers. Not a lot of teams can come back like that against the Stormers. It is going to be a very tough game if you look at who they can pick.
“We have to be ready for them. We can’t just think it is going to happen. We can’t think playing at 3pm will do it for us in hot weather. It is definitely not the case any more, with any team from this side of the world.”
Pieterse believes the Sharks are at a crossroads and they have nothing to lose. He expects them to come out swinging.
“They could come out and try things that might work for them on the day. We won’t underestimate the Sharks, whether they are No 1 or No 20.”
If anything, the coach is hopeful his players will respond to the challenge of measuring themselves against several individuals who may be higher up the national pecking order.
The Lions appeared to have lost some of their lustre in their last match against the Bulls.
They operated under pressure and looked constrained* perhaps as a result of relinquishing set-piece superiority to the Bulls.
“Set piece will always be a focus, even if it went well in the last game,” he said. “Against the Bulls we knew they are a good set-piece team.
“We had plans for that and on the day it didn’t come off. We have to fix it. As a team we need our set piece to run properly for us to be in the game and win.”
The Lions are yet to determine whether industrious flank Emmanuel Tshituka will be available for selection on Saturday.