Lions get their tactics just right
It was a case of the plan all coming together for the Lions against a Blue Bulls side who played exactly as they had prepared for, according to coach Swys de Bruin after their 36-33 win in their Currie Cup match at Ellis Park at the weekend.
The chief weapons for the Lions in their third consecutive win were their rolling maul and a powerful scrummaging performance, with De Bruin saying these were the aspects they focused on during their preparation.
“It was exactly what we thought would happen, we knew the Bulls would try and run everything and that’s why we played a tighter game. They have very quick outside backs, so we tried to be more direct and more suffocating. We called it ‘maul week’ in our training. And yet we still managed to score five tries as well,” De Bruin said.
The win – and especially the manner in which it was achieved – would have been especially satisfying for new Lions forwards coach Victor Matfield, who was a Bulls legend during his playing days.
“It was a big focus for us, taking them on up front, especially in the mauls and scrum. We made good metres and we won lots of penalties because everyone was happy to buy into Victor’s style for this game and he loves mauls,” Lions captain and impressive loosehead prop Jacques van Rooyen said.
Blue Bulls coach John Mitchell said he was pleased with the performance, especially the intent.
“I was very proud of the way they played, they showed great intent and their defence was very good at times too. We could have had better field position on a more regular basis, but from deep we looked pretty dangerous as well. We just lost momentum in the last 10-12 minutes of the first half when we became a bit loose.
“But their intent was pretty clear. With a lot of U21 players there are always going to be a couple of cracks, but they will learn to deal with that under pressure. I thought we did a really good job in the second half, they did not premeditate their exits and fall into the trap of giving the ball away,” Mitchell said.