Lacklustre Lions face season-defining January

The Lions are the classic example of a team that flatters to deceive, often promising so much, but unfortunately unable to deliver more often than not, and it may be the same again this season if they don’t enjoy a relatively successful start to the new year.

It has been a largely poor start to the 2025-26 campaign for the Johannesburg team, with them losing six and winning three of their nine games so far in all competitions.

But with it having been a competitive URC season so far, their three wins against four losses still sees them sitting in the playoff places, at seventh on the log, but that can change very quickly with how the table is bunched.

Vitally important

It is thus vitally important for the Lions to continue picking up regular wins to keep themselves in the mix heading into the latter stages of the season.

Where they should get a boost is that most of their games later on will be at home, which could be vital in helping them to pick up a few wins.

But as they proved last season, they can’t count on home form to get them into the URC playoffs, as going into the final four matches of their 2024-25 campaign they needed to win all four home matches to make the knockouts, but in the end only beat Connacht and Ospreys, while losing to Benetton and Scarlets.

They thus also have to pick up wins on the road here and there, to keep themselves in the hunt and give them the best opportunity to make the URC playoffs for the first time.

As always, the Lions have shown glimpses of their potential, like their impressive win over the Bulls at Loftus, and even their most recent game, a 34-27 loss against the in-form Stormers that they should probably have won.

Back it up

But none of that matters if they can’t back it up and make the URC knockouts, as all of it has been for nought over their past four URC campaigns.

The Lions are also on the brink of being dumped out of the Challenge Cup competition at the earliest possible moment, after a home loss to Benetton and away defeat to Newcastle Red Bulls has left them second bottom of their pool, and one more loss will likely end their playoff hopes.

So it is set to be a busy January for the Lions, with them up against the Sharks in Durban in the URC, followed by two Challenge Cup games, hosting Lyon at Ellis Park and travelling to France to face Perpignan, before finishing the month back in the URC against Ospreys in Wales.

They will likely have to win both their Challenge Cup matches to stay in the competition, while an away win over the Sharks or Ospreys will be important for them to keep pace with the other teams in the URC.

The Lions will now need to back up their upbeat captain Francke Horn when he said after the Stormers defeat: “There are a lot of positives that we can take forward. Luckily in rugby, there’s a game in the next two weeks again, another SA derby, and another opportunity.”