Lions face new but familiar foes in Stade Francais

Friday night’s clash with the Lions in the Challenge Cup may be Stade Francais’s first visit to Ellis Park, but the hosts know their opponents all too well.     

Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher, utility forward Willem Alberts and scrumhalf André Warner had all once been contracted to the Paris-based club and this week would no doubt have shared some information with their teammates about their former team. 

Alberts made 70-odd appearances for Stade Francais between 2015 and 2020 and Loubscher reprised his role as backline assistant coach under former Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer at the club in 2019.

Loubscher spoke about the content of the team’s DNA. “It’s about playing a massive kicking game and putting you under pressure by forcing mistakes,” he said. “On attack, they have some brilliant runners. 

“Our discipline needs to be good. They have a No 10 who is a good goal-kicker,” Loubscher said about Léo Barré. 

“That kicking game yielded two tries in their win last weekend over Benetton in Paris. If your kicking game is not on the money, they are going to hurt you on the counterattack from anywhere.”

As things stand, the Lions are slightly on the back foot in their need to produce a result on Friday. Their home record has been underwhelming so far this season, and their match against the Dragons last weekend was another reminder that they are still well short of where they need to be.

Apart from showing alarming lapses in defence, the Lions found themselves on the wrong side of the laws too often.

“At the moment we are conceding too many penalties and we are making too many unforced errors,” Loubscher admitted. “From our point of view, we need to get our discipline sorted out.

“We need to be more patient. We need to stick to our systems and use our opportunities. If we can use the altitude and play a high-tempo game, then we can put them under pressure,” said the attack coach.

To compound their woes, the Lions lost experienced tighthead prop Ruan Dreyer to a knee injury last weekend. They will have to dig deep into their resources against a big and technically sound Stade Francais pack. The visitors boast World Cup-winning tighthead Vincent Koch in their ranks.

“We know what Vincent can do and then there is the rest of the pack with some Georgians,” said Loubscher. “They have some physical guys. They scrum well and they can put you under pressure with ball in hand, so the big thing for us is to pitch up physically.

“Physicality is a big thing for us going into this game.”

Warner, who had a three-month stint with Stade Francais, warned the visitors will come well prepared. “They also have a few South Africans in the squad so they would have prepped them in that regard.”

“They know what to expect with altitude, so they will be prepared for it.”