The Lions will try again, says Simelane

ONE of the biggest failings of the Lions this past weekend was their inability to dot down behind the Bulls' tryline.

Due to a handful of factors, including a lack of clinical execution in the opposition half, wretched errors with ball-in-hand, and the staunch defence of the Bulls, the Joburgers were unable to traverse the whitewash.

Instead, they relied on the boot of Fred Zeilinga to notch up their only points of the game - all nine of them.

And that inability to score a single try hurt … it hurt a lot, according to SA Rugby Young Player of the Year Wandisile Simelane.

"Not scoring a try against the Bulls was a bit painful for us," said the Lions centre, while speaking to Independent Media yesterday, "because we pride ourselves on our attacking game. We are definitely going to try and fix that, and try and look at ourselves and see what we can do better.

"We did have a good chat about it this week," the 23-year-old continued, "and the main thing we said was not to panic - one game is not going to determine how good or how bad we are. The main thing for all of us is to just stay calm and just restart.

“We know that we are all good enough and have the capabilities of playing well and pulling together as a team. So, one of the main things for us is just not to hit panic mode, refocus, regroup, believe in our processes, and just keep going.“

Other disappointing aspects of the Lions' opening Rainbow Cup South Africa encounter was the team's defence, especially in the first five minutes of the match, and the lack of enthusiasm in the kick-chase.

The Lions made 112 tackles to limit the Bulls during 60 minutes of the game, but equally, they missed 24 tackles for a 79% tackle-rate success.

Moreover, they gave the Bulls far too much room and too many options on the counter, when they decided to put boot-to-ball.

Both those areas, according to Simelane, will be much improved when the Lions face the Sharks in Round 2 of the tournament in Durban on Saturday (kick-off 4pm).

"I believe it was just individual errors; our system was perfectly fine," said Simelane.

"It was just simple one-on-one missed tackles which we were all guilty of. We've worked hard on it during this week and, hopefully, we fix it this weekend against the Sharks.

“With regard to our system, we are 100%. Everyone understands their role, it's just those simple oneon-one hits.

"There are a number of things that didn't work as well as we thought they would but that is part of rugby," the Springbok-hopeful continued.

"It is never a perfect science, but every week we work hard in fixing the small, little details, and getting the small, little things right (like the kick-chase). The closer we get to perfecting those things, the more positive results we will get out of the weekends. We are definitely working hard on all those small things that we have noted that we are not doing well enough in."

Nevertheless, Simelane also admitted that overturning their opening loss and beating the Sharks, while not improbable, will be difficult, not at least because of the quality that the Durbanites possess.

Said Simelane: "They've got good players all-round, I must admit that.

"They have Springboks, and all the other players that aren't Springboks are just as good. They have a massive squad with lots of depth. We know that there is danger coming from everywhere.

“They've got a good kicking game in Curwin (Bosch), a good running game, so they are pretty much wellbalanced.

"We are going to have to be more than ready to pull off a win in Durban," he concluded.