‘It was an amazing season’

AFTER enjoying an “amazing” Super Rugby competition, Lions boss Johan Ackermann will now turn his attention to the defence of the Currie Cup title they won in emphatic fashion last year.

The Lions will be hot favourites to make it back-toback triumphs after going through last year’s competition unbeaten, but they will be a much weaker outfit.

No less than nine of their players will be running out for the Springboks in the coming weeks and months, and even when they are not, some of them will be in far away Japan playing club rugby.

Ackermann and his coaching team will pretty much start afresh this week, preparing their team for their first assignment this weekend.

“It’s now back to the Currie Cup for those players who are not going to be playing for the Boks,” said Ackermann after his team’s Super Rugby final defeat to the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday.

“It’s been an amazing season. There are many more positives than negatives ... we achieved some great victories over the course of the Super Rugby competition, against all the South African teams and also against several of the overseas teams who we had not beaten before.

“There are a number of things we achieved this year that we had not done in the past ... so I’m proud of what was an amazing season.”

Despite losing 20-3 at Westpac Stadium on Saturday, they were never outplayed or dominated by their opponents.

The Canes grabbed two half-chances that came their way, wing Cory Jane and flyhalf Beauden Barrett scoring the only tries of a defence-minded match in which Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies were unable to play their natural quick-passing game.

Lions skipper Warren Whiteley was positive about the future.

“Results and days like these (losing in an away final) will make us stronger in future. We’ll pretty much have the same squad as this year going into the 2017 competition so, there’s a lot to be positive about.”