Lions go back to drawing board
WE CAN BE MUCH BETTER AT OUR SET-PIECES Hurricanes captain full of praise for their ‘resilient’ opponents.
They have identified a few key areas they will need to improve on in their final Super Rugby tour game against the Highlanders in Dunedin this weekend, Lions skipper Franco Mostert said yesterday.
Mostert said there should be doubt that a tour Down Under is no walk in the park after losing to the Reds and the Highlanders in their last two games.
“It is a difficult tour, we have won only one out of three,” said Mostert.
“But hopefully we can go back this week and work hard for the Highlanders game and give it our best in the final game on tour.”
While the Lions showed their mettle by turning a few balls over against the Hurricanes early on, they need to show more support for their ball-carriers.
“Congratulations to the Hurricanes, they deserved it. At the rucks they were first in so we have to go back and work on our cleaning out,” he said.
“We can be much better at our setpieces, like we discovered at the very first ruck.”
Hurricanes captain Brad Shields also complimented the Lions for their resilience and not allowing the scoreboard to get away from them.
“We gave them a couple of easy tries in that second half and we have to go back to our little whiteboard,” he said.
“But to be fair we could have scored a couple more tries, but the Lions scrambled very well out there on defence. We also made a couple of mistakes in the golden zone.”
Having lost just one game and having won eight games in a row, Shields believes the pressure the Lions put them under can only serve them well.
“Eventually we stuck to the game plan well and came away with a good win. But it’s a couple of skill areas that put us under pressure in our own half,” he said.