Lions not banking on past success against Sharks in URC derby

Despite their impressive dominance over the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship (URC) over the past few years, the Lions won’t be taking anything for granted in their derby match-up at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 2pm).

The Lions have impressively won four of their last five meetings against their coastal rivals, including two massive home wins in their last two encounters on the Highveld, 38-14 last season and 40-10 the season before.

They have also clinched two away wins in that time, 20-18 two seasons ago and 23-22 earlier this season, while their sole loss in that period came in Durban, going down 25-22 last season.

The Lions will surely take confidence out of those results, and they know from those big home wins how important starting well is, but forwards coach Wessel Roux admitted that they won’t pay mind to what has happened in the past and rather look forward.

“It’s always important to start well. We have seen that in many matches. If you start well the chances of finishing well is good. But looking at the past games (against the Sharks), I personally don’t even look at that,” explained Roux.

“What’s really important for the team and especially for the pack is what happens on Saturday, and to look to the future.

“It’s important to fix certain things that have gone wrong, especially in the last game (a heavy home loss against the Bulls), so I don’t think the past results will have any effect on the scoreboard and game this weekend.”

Bulls loss

In their 57-12 loss against the Bulls the Lions came off second best in many aspects, especially in terms of physicality and at the set pieces, and those will need to be fixed if they want to beat a confident Sharks team, coming off two impressive wins over the Stormers.

“I think we need to dominate the contact situation. You won’t be able to dominate every situation, but you have to do it more often than not if you want to win. That is an important thing,” said Roux.

“From my personal perspective with the pack, especially in the lineouts, there were some fundamental issues we have had. Against the Bulls we had 12 lineouts and lost five of them.

“All five of them were just fundamental errors. Like a little bit slow movement, or the throw wasn’t perfect, or the call didn’t get through because it was noisy. So they are easy to fix.

“We also want to fight the narrative that there are system errors. It is just poor execution. So fundamentals, set piece and physical dominance are going to be crucial, because the Sharks are a proper physical side which drives them forward against their opposition.”