Small errors cost the Lions dearly
THERE can be a bevy of complaints directed towards the officiating and apparent time-wasting shenanigans in the Emirates Lions and Connacht encounter on Saturday, but the truth of it is that the Joburgers didn’t execute with accuracy when in control of the game.
The Irish franchise seemingly employed a heavy dose of gamesmanship in their 33-30 United Rugby Championship (URC) triumph at Emirates Airline Park – slowing down play during the encounter after they took a healthy 14-0 lead in the first 15 minutes – which frustrated the Lions no end.
Whether it was a clever strategy, or the nature of a clash on the Highveld, it played into the hands of Connacht.
“Yeah, we had injuries,” Connacht coach Andy Friend disputed postmatch.
“We had two (head injury assessments) and one returned positive, the other one could not get back out there, which was disappointing ... We had our battles out there trying to keep 15 fit men on the park, and it was more coming out of our forwards.
“That is the game of rugby, it is a physical game and sometimes you pick up the injuries and we had a few on (Saturday).”
Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen, meanwhile, admitted after the match to being maddened by the progression of the encounter, but remained pragmatic in his assessment nonetheless. Said Van Rooyen: “This is tactics. “Clearly, they came with a tactic before every set-piece to take their time, whether it was before a scrum or line-out, and the got away with it on (Saturday). I felt there were a couple of times where the game could have continued …
“In the box, we got quite excited about it – the momentum was just, every time, stop-start, stop-start, stopstart; which suited them obviously. We had to restart building pressure and keep that pressure and then we would make small little errors, and that just gave them time to rest again.
“We felt we had them in the scrums, we had them in that last bit but we were unable to get the reward at the last scrum to obviously go to the corner and see if we can clinch it at the end.
“It was obviously frustrating.” Nevertheless, on review, the Lions will know they fluffed their chances.
The arguably did not do enough to defend their rucks. At crucial moments, just as they found a bit of rhythm; a bit of momentum; and a bit of purchase, they would make a fundamental error that allowed the Irish a breather, or an opportunity to score some points.
Yes, they were able to put together some breathtaking line-breaks and offloads that resulted in enjoyable tries, but their inability to remain accurate in defence and in their own half, had them chasing the game from the onset.
The Lions next face Benetton of Italy, their final home game of the URC this coming weekend, and skipper Burger Odendaal was clear and concise regarding what is required in that clash to ensure victory.
“It is small thing we need to fix once again,” said Odendaal.
“I felt those first two tries were just errors that we made it was almost easy tries for them, especially the second one … We have to start off better and cut the errors, it is as simple as that.”