BOKS INSPIRE LIONS
SHARKS CLASH: VAN ROOYEN MAKES THREE CHANGES
Coach insists his team have addressed their Province errors.
The performance by the Springboks last week has filtered through to the Currie Cup competition and gave the Golden Lions a big lift. Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen revealed yesterday his squad had watched the Test together, with the Boks securing a memorable victory over the All Blacks.
“We watched the Bok game before we all started our day last weekend,” Van Rooyen said.
“It was really inspirational. It was a great start to the day for us and we were hoping to finish it off.”
They could not “finish it off” later that day, as they received a big hiding from Western Prov- ince, but the Lions were hoping to get back on track against the Sharks in Durban tomorrow.
“It was a really exciting challenge for us,” Van Rooyen said.
“Province obviously are the defending champions and they have been playing good rugby.”
Van Rooyen made three changes to his team yesterday, with Springbok scrumhalf Ross Cronje set to lead the Lions this weekend, taking over from lock Marvin Orie after he was released by the Bok management team.
In the only other changes to the starting line-up, Pieter Jansen would turn out at hooker while Johannes Jonker was back at tighthead.
Heading into their penultimate match ahead of the playoffs, Van Rooyen felt they had to make the most of it, with their next fixture scheduled for October 12 against the Pumas.
He believed they had learned a lot from the Province defeat.
“Province are good defensively and we were looking to keep the ball and also see what we could offer on attack,” Van Rooyen said.
They had known, however, that Province were going to get ball and they knew they had to defend well, so they would try to eliminate their errors this week.
“We have a young pack and last weekend was the first proper test for them.
“It was our last home game and we really wanted to do well, but we have addressed our mistakes.”
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