Injury issues plague Lions ahead of Stade Francais clash

As if the prospect of facing French giants Stade Francais in their own backyard was not daunting enough, the Emirates Lions may have to do it without two more of their stars as the injury list keeps swelling on their European tour.

The team will know later about the status of midfielder Henco van Wyk and flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse, both of whom hobbled off the field in their 33-3 loss to Munster last Friday.

While the Lions have ample replacements. the lengthening injury list is not helping them as there is a lot of rugby ahead.

Already they are without props Sti Sithole and Ruan Dreyer, captain Reinhard Nothnagel, No 8 Francke Horn and scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba, all of whom are injured.

Winger Rabz Maxwane was ruled out before the tour and lock Pieter Jansen van Vuren stayed behind for the birth of his child.

Hendrikse left the field in the first half with an ankle injury and Van Wyk has a possible knee injury.

This should be confirmed after scans to see how serious the injuries are, but Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen is bracing for bad news.

“Jordan and Henco are pretty sore,” he said. “We are travelling for quite a long time and the injuries have to settle a bit for 48 hours, so that’s why we’re waiting a bit. We hope it’s not too bad.”

The coach also lamented the lack of killer instinct in his side and that they did not take opportunities when they were presented them.

“We don’t really have the ability to capitalise on opposition mistakes, or take our chances when we create them and turn them into points,” he said.

“So we’re very disappointed with the result. It’s not nice against a good Munster team that’s really been in form.

“I didn’t feel they were 30 points better than us given the talk in the change room, but they were very good at capitalising on their opportunities.”

The Lions also felt they did not get the reward for the collapsed scrums in the first half and it had stunted their momentum in the game.

“We probably didn’t get the reward we deserved after that third repeated scrum,” said Van Rooyen.

“We felt we had ascendancy in that instance and the decision probably proved a bit of a momentum stopper.

“If we had managed to score five or seven points there, we might have really put Munster under pressure.

“At stages we managed our territory, but on other occasions we overplayed a bit.

“Early in the second half we forced an attacking offload and ended up back in our own half, so the errors were expensive.”

Van Rooyen admitted the wind had been a factor, but his side should have handled it better.

“Obviously with the wind we wanted to play a bit more territory and at stages we managed to do that but on other occasions we overplayed a bit.”

With Stade Francais ahead, the team will need to regroup.

“It is important for us to prepare well for the match against Stade Francais, who are second on the Top 14 log,” Van Rooyen said.

“It is going to be a tough challenge, but hopefully the weather will be better next week so we can play a little bit more.

“I think it is important for us to pull together as a group and find solutions in preparation and on the field.” 

SuperSport.com