Lions realise they can’t afford to leak any more tries

As a defensive unit they know there are still things to work on, admitted Lions defence coach Joey Mongalo (right) ahead of this afternoon’s Super Rugby quarterfinal against the Jaguares at Ellis Park.

There has been a notion that the Lions are leaking too many tries, having conceded 55 at an average of 3.4 per match, against the 77 they have scored, joint top with the Crusaders.

“The 55 tries we have let in is still in the top five of the teams who have conceded the least, but we still could defend a lot better than we have,” said Mongalo.

Before the play-offs the Crusaders conceded the least on 39, followed by the Hurricanes (43), the Chiefs (48), the Brumbies (52) and then the Lions and Jaguares on 55.

“But in the context of the competition and how the team have changed, we are not disgruntled about the progress we have made as a defensive unit,” he said.

He said they are expecting the Jaguares to keep the ball a bit, adding the Bulls gave them a scare in the first 20 minutes last weekend, but said it was a confidence booster for the guys to go the next 50 minutes without conceding a point.

“If their flyhalf Nicholas Sanchez has a good one for the Jaguares, they tend to thrive off his performances. But we need to have an holistic outlook as they also use their loose forwards quite a bit to get forward momentum,” he said.

“But we are excited about the challenge and we know it will be a massive test.”

Mongalo said what makes the Jaguares different is the tempo they play at, they thrive on quick ball. With them you are never at rest until you get ball in hand, and they are very dangerous from turnover ball.

“Winning away from home does massive wonders for your confidence and they have been in SA for two weeks so they would have acclimatised and we are expecting them to fire on all cylinders.

“It’s about putting their skillset under pressure and keeping line integrity, it’s about getting the combinations right.”

Mongalo said the Lions are expecting probably one of their toughest defensive challenges of the entire competition.

“If you just watch them play, most of the applications centre around Sanchez, he exits quite a lot, I think it’s about a 80/20 scenario between him and 9 and on attack they mostly play off him,” he said.