Lions gear up to face beefed-up Ospreys
SA outfit seeks first win of season
The Lions are looking forward to testing themselves against Wales international players when they take on the Ospreys in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.
This will be the first time the Lions play in their international tour. They are looking to get their first win of the season. Getting a victory away will prove to be difficult for the Johannesburg franchise.
They are taking on an Ospreys that boasts the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Rhodri Jones, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard and Gareth Anscombe. When the Ospreys visited the Lions in Johannesburg they were thrashed 45-15. In that game, they did not have their Test rugby players.
This weekend they are expected to make a huge difference. Lions assistant coach Albert van den Berg says they have prepared for the international players that the Ospreys are set to unleash.
“We can never underestimate them as a team,” said Van den Berg.
“Last season during the Six Nations, they did not have their big names, so we were fortunate. This time they are all available. We studied the videos and we did prepare for them. It’s a case of getting an opportunity to play against them and for our guys to show what they can do.”
Van den Berg said they worked on getting their systems right and rectifying the mistakes they made in their defeat to the Bulls last weekend.
“We have to make sure the guys understand the system,” said the former Springbok lock. [Against the Bulls] it was individual mistakes ...We’ve had training sessions and hopefully, we get them to execute,” he said.
The other SA franchises will be in action this weekend. This evening the Sharks will take on Zebre Parma in Italy at 6.30pm. The Bulls will welcome Edinburgh to Loftus Versfeld at 2.30pm, while the URC defending champions the Stormers will face Connacht at Danie Craven Stadium at the same time.