Lions hope to counter Benetton ‘smart tricks’
THE Lions’ United Rugby Championship season might be coming to a close, but the lessons gleaned and the experiences encountered this past year in the newfangled tournament will form an important building block for the Joburgers going forward, according to Julian Redelinghuys.
Sporting his now famous bucket hat and looking smart in the coaching red, the former Springbok prop and current Lions scrum coach discussed with a smile, chuckle and some deep introspection what new wisdom the coaching and player group have encountered in the first URC season.
“It has been a great learning curve,” Redelinghuys said with a trademark chortle, while teasingly looking at a watch-less wrist.
“We have seen so many different pictures. If you think back to the last couple of years, we only played against the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks, and so many times over and over again, so you have had this similar picture all the time.
“Whereas now, we have scrummed against 15 different packs – and there are reserves in and out the whole time – so you get so many different pictures.
“There really is a long list of things that we have learnt, which is great for the guys.
“We just had a chat now between the front rows on what (Connacht) did against us and how we can neutralise that again from what we have seen from Benetton. They do come with smart tricks to almost nullify your scrum, and they do it really well.
“In South Africa, it is almost always guys going flat-out at every scrum, whereas (the European teams) have little nuances as to how to influence the scrum.”
Despite the protestation from the European teams to the contrary, there has been a measure of gamesmanship employed in South Africa, especially on the highveld, which has seen visiting teams slow down proceedings to manage the pace of the game.
It occurred again in the Lions’ 33-30 loss to Connacht last weekend, when the Irish took every opportunity to stop the game and collect their collective breaths.
Redelinghuys and company have watched on in admitted frustration, but the 32-year-old also declared that the Lions will learn how to combat those tactics.
“It is definitely something that we would have picked up now in our first season in the URC, and I definitely think it is something that we can improve on… If you look at those teams, they have a lot of internationals, whereas in South Africa at the moment, our dynamic is a little bit different,” Redelinghuys said.
“They’ve got the guys with
Test knowledge bringing that into the provincial sides. It is a reason how they can introduce that into their teams. For us, we have learnt so much, and we are looking to implement it.
“In a couple of weeks’ time, it will be South Africans’ first preseason in a long time, and that is where you normally install all of your new systems and things that you want to take forward.”
The Lions face Italian outfit Benetton at Ellis Park on Saturday, and finish their season in late May against the Dragons away.
Although they have no chance of making the quarter-finals, Redelinghuys insisted that their work this season is not done.
“We just need to improve,” he said.
“We have learnt so much the last couple of seasons… We don’t want to be results-focused. We all know that rugby is just so much more lekker if you win, but to only focus on the results won’t necessarily do the job for you.
“There are a lot of things we did this week that we are implementing for the future… We can’t qualify for the play-offs, so now it is about focusing, staying in the process and building on things for the future.”