Lions need to perform a circus act and hope others crash

Ivan van Rooyen, the Lions’ coach, remains optimistic his team can still reach the quarterfinals of the United Rugby Championship (URC).

His team went down 42-31 to Benetton at Ellis Park on Saturday and the defeat leaves them in 14th place on the points table, nine adrift from the eighth-placed Stormers who beat Connacht 34-29 in Cape Town.

Even if the Lions beat Connacht, the Scarlets and Ospreys in bonus-point wins in their remaining league fixtures they can only reach 46 log points and that historically will leave them short of the threshold for top-eight qualification. In 2024 they got to a best-ever 50 and still fell short.

“I still believe we need to get three wins here,” Van Rooyen said. “The reality is all the teams who are in it are playing against each other and will sort each other out.

“We are still alive. I believe it, we’ll speak it but we need to be better.”

He believes the bonus point they picked up against Benetton could still prove crucial in the final analysis. He concedes, however, their destiny is no longer entirely in their hands.

“Now one or two results will have to go our way. Getting 15 points is non-negotiable.”

On the latest evidence they have much to improve on. Their game lacked continuity as inaccuracy stymied them at every turn. Their handling in particular was far from standard and three of the tries they conceded had their genesis in coughing up possession.

“Too many errors early on,” explained Van Rooyen about his team’s shortcomings. “They’ve got 15-plus internationals and if you make that many errors they are going to put you under pressure. Their attack is really good.

“We also gave away too many penalties. That allowed them to dictate the tempo of the game. Again we showed good fight, but again if you are that far behind time catches up with you.”

Van Rooyen’s summary is an all too familiar one. Their sins are well known and their recidivism, it appears, has again left them short of top-eight qualification.

“It feels like it,” nodded Van Rooyen when it was put to him that his postmatch comments have an all-too-familiar ring.

What will no doubt lengthen the odds is the potential loss of regular captain Francke Horn. He left the field with a knee injury in the first half and stoically attended the postmatch media conference on crutches.

“In the lineout they tried to sack me, my leg got stuck and I felt a little bit of a click. The physio clicked it back and I think they said something about my patella,” explained Horn.

“It was too unstable to continue. We will only know the severity of it after the scans.”

Somehow, though, those who guide the fortunes of the Lions have maintained the belief they are moving in the right direction. There is an oft-used psychologist’s saying of doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome, that can now be applied to the Lions.

“We just lack a bit of accuracy currently,” said Van Rooyen, though that would be a gross underappreciation of the job he has on his hands. 

It is not just this defeat but its potential wider implications that should invite an inquest at Ellis Park. As things stand the Lions are only making up the numbers in the URC.

They will continue to plod along unless there is a serious rethink of their business model and how that affects recruitment of players and coaches.

It was their stated ambition to reach the top eight and again, under the same heads in key positions, they appear to have fallen short.