Lions to hunt discipline
Discipline will be one of the deciding factors when the Lions host the Jaguares at Ellis Park Stadium on Saturday.
Maintaining discipline is an area of focus for the Lions this season, but it is not necessarily a pursuit in which they expect the visitors to excel.
“We want to protect the ball better this week‚” said Lions coach Swys de Bruin.
“That way we can put together phases and build pressure, and that in turn will force the Jaguares to lose their discipline.”
The Jaguares conceded 15 penalties against the Stormers; a similar tally will make for another long afternoon at Ellis Park.
De Bruin‚ however‚ is also all too aware of their potency with the ball. “They carry the ball extremely well. They play an interesting style of attack.
“They’ve got a good nine‚ 10 combination. Their whole spine is good. They don’t have many weaknesses,” he said.
“You have to be on top of your game to beat them.”
The Lions were not entirely on top of their game in their win over the Sharks last week.
“Coach Philip [Lemmer] and Franco [Mostert] worked hard at that. We believe it is sorted out‚” De Bruin said about their troubles in the lineout.
“I think we were just slow, to be honest‚” said captain Warren Whiteley. “Some of our calls weren’t good. We’ve worked on it‚ our speed and reaction.”
De Bruin retained the same starting XV he named to play the Sharks. Lock Andries Ferreira was earmarked to play but a stomach bug meant he had to sit out. He is back up and running.
On the bench‚ De Bruin has introduced scrumhalf Marco Jansen van Vuuren to alleviate the burden on Ross Cronjé.
“There is not too much disruption in the starting XV. We will introduce younger players when the opportunity presents itself,” he said.
Since the Jaguares’ introduction to Super Rugby in 2016‚ the Lions have found the going mostly tough against the South Americans.