Lions count on Bok boost
DERBY: CAPETONIANS LOOM LARGE FOR JOBURG’S PRIDE
De Bruin’s troops lick their wounds after narrow loss against Crusaders on Easter Sunday.
After dropping their third Super Rugby game 14-8 against the Crusaders at the weekend, the Lions could be boosted by the return of a host of their Springboks.
Coach Swys de Bruin said players like scrumhalf Ross Cronje, centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg, wing Ruan Combrinck and captain Warren Whiteley are all in line to possibly return against the Stormers at Ellis Park this weekend.
“We might have Combrinck back in the fray. We’ll get the verdict on Ross, while Rohan might be close and Warren might be back, so it’s always looking positive,” said De Bruin.
“But I’ll live and die by the honour to be involved with this team.”
De Bruin said it was disappointing going down to the Crusaders where he felt they made a massive improvement on their defence.
“I got to get over this as soon as possible and focus on the Stormers. It’s a big game but trust me every game is big,” he said. “They are coming off a loss, we now had a few bumps on the road, but we are not going to give in whatsoever, that’s the character of this group.”
Despite his view that Crusaders wing George Bridge was very lucky to escape without a sanction for his aerial contact on Marnus Schoeman late in the second half, De Bruin said he has never been one to look for excuses.
“I think they have a massive pack of forwards who performed so well and there’s a few All Blacks and they did suffocate us a bit,” he said. “It’s a facet that’s been good but this time we didn’t get our primary possession in the lineouts and that’s mainly where it started for us.”
It’s the second Kiwi side that the Lions have gone down to but De Bruin believes it could so easy have been different.
“I’m still a bit upset that we let that one slip against the Blues, that’s one we should have taken,” he added. “On the weekend the guys played really well against a very good side and congrats to them, that’s not nice but it’s sport.”