Stormers’ loss ‘bad news for us’
DE BRUIN: LIONS COACH SAYS THEY WILL BE DANGEROUS
Johan Ackermann a welcome visitor to Ellis Park on Saturday.
Amassive challenge looms for South African Conference leaders the Lions this weekend, in their Super Rugby derby showdown with the Stormers at Newlands.
The Lions got back to winning ways with their 42-24 win over the Brumbies at Ellis Park on Saturday, but the Stormers’ shock defeat to the Sunwolves in Hong Kong would make them dangerous opponents, according to Lions coach Swys de Bruin.
“To put things in perspective, that Sunwolves team are a very good side and they have taken many teams like us right to the end,” De Bruin said.
“I think people will start to realise now they are a very good team and also a very well-coached side.”
With this week’s game being their last before the June international Test window, there could be a lot at stake in Cape Town.
“The Stormers will be back and it will be a typical SA derby, and we expect nothing less than a big arm wrestle,” De Bruin said.
While the Lions scored six tries to three against the Brumbies, they had to wait for the 60th minute to get the upper hand after a red card to Brumbies lock Rory Arnold – following a dangerous tackle on Lions centurion Elton Jantjies – and a yellow to lock partner Sam Carter.
Arnold was later handed a three-week suspension.
“I must say there were a lot of errors but we knew it would be an arm wrestle from the word go. They are in your faces and then you make more errors,” De Bruin said.
“So the more you are trying to play, the more mistakes creep in, but the big thing that we decided was that our discipline needed to be better than theirs, and it paid off at the end of the day when we focused on our own job.”
Former Lions coach Johan Ackermann was a surprise visitor in the company of his son Ruan and Springbok flank Jaco Kriel, both former Lions players who had joined him overseas.
“It was good to see him. I had a brief ‘hello’ just after the game and said ‘hello you Gloucester boys’,” De Bruin said.
“The plan was to catch him later, but they were here and it was good to see them.”