Lions feel they have a ‘very good chance’ to beat Bulls at Loftus as URC resumes

The Lions are feeling refreshed and ready to get their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign back up and running with a huge derby encounter against the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday afternoon (2pm).

It will kickstart a busy festive rugby period that will see them juggling URC and EPCR Challenge Cup duties over the next two months.

The Lions endured a difficult start to the URC, suffering three poor defeats on their overseas tour, but turned things around back at home picking up bonus point wins over Scarlets and Ulster.

That lifted them to eighth on the log, two places behind the Bulls, who themselves have had a mixed start to the season with three wins and two losses, and assistant coach Barend Pieterse believes the Lions have what it takes to trouble their Highveld rivals.

“Everyone came back fresh, ready for these last two weeks (of training) before the Bulls game. We felt very good after the match against Ulster, who hadn’t lost a game (until then). It was a big boost for our confidence as a squad,” said Pieterse.

“The big test in the URC is our local derbies and it has been a long time since we have beaten the Bulls in this competition. If we can control our discipline and be good in that department, I think we give ourselves a very good chance on Saturday.”

Challenge Cup

Following the Bulls match, the Lions head into the Challenge Cup, and Pieterse said that they will be looking to rotate their squad to keep fresh as they host Benetton before travelling to England to take on the Newcastle Red Bulls, before finishing their busy December in the URC against the Stormers in Cape Town.

“I think going into the EPCR we’ve already had the discussion. We would be silly just to pick one team the whole time going through the season,” explained Pieterse.

“There is going to be opportunities for players to maybe start against Benetton and Newcastle and then hopefully have some more fresh legs for the Stormers game.

“But there are a lot of teams that are juggling that and I think we didn’t do too bad in the past two years, juggling between the two competitions, and giving guys who haven’t played a chance. There will definitely be a chance for guys in the deeper squad for game time in the EPCR.”

The Lions also had a bit of a worry at hooker, after veteran Jaco Visagie was last week forced to call time on his career due to injury, but Pieterse said that they are well covered, especially with first-choice PJ Botha returning from injury soon, and following the loan signing of Griquas hooker Janco Uys.

“I think a few weeks back, it would have been a different discussion, but PJ is coming back from injury. He started training and he’ll hopefully be back in the next week or two,” said Pieterse.

“Janco is giving us good cover there as well. We’ve also got Franco Marais, Morné Brandon, and still got Marno Grobbelaar at the bottom as well, as a youngster coming through, so there’s enough depth at the moment.”