They’re joint top of the log with the Bulls; both teams being unbeaten and having collected all 20 points on offer, so there’s obviously plenty of pressure on the Lions to keep on winning – and grabbing the four-try bonus point.
Not so, says coach Johan Ackermann ahead of his team’s round five outing against the winless EP Kings at Ellis Park tomorrow.
“We don’t discuss the log or how many bonus points we’ve picked up,” said Ackermann yesterday.
“We might be in a chase with the Bulls, but we’re not trying to keep up with them or get ahead of them. All we’re interested in right now is winning; getting bonus points every time really has been a bonus. We simply want to win to be in there at the end.”
While satisfied with his team’s progress, Ackermann said he was still far from content with the quality of rugby his players have produced.
“We haven’t played to our full potential. But there are reasons for that. We’ve suffered quite a few injuries since the start of the competition and that’s meant we’ve had to build new combinations.
“To think we haven’t been able to select our first choice loose-trio from Super Rugby ... it’s changed nearly every week, while the midfield has also changed and so, too, the halfback pairing. But it’s not all bad; we’re developing our players and growing as a squad.”
The Lions have an opportunity to dish out another hiding tomorrow when the Kings visit Ellis Park; the men from Port Elizabeth yet to win a game this season and the last time these teams met the Lions scored an emphatic 51-14 victory.
On top of that the Kings players have been embroiled in a wage dispute with their employers after not being paid for August. The players stayed away from training on Tuesday and there were fears tomorrow’s game might not have gone ahead, but an intervention by Kings president Cheeky Watson and CEO Charl Crous yesterday prevented this from happening. Apparently the players were paid their wages just before representatives of the South African Rugby Players Association were due to meet with them in Port Elizabeth.
Ackermann said his players were aware of what was happening at the Kings but that they had to focus on the job at hand. “We can sympathise with the players, but we can’t think of things like that while we’re preparing for a big game,” he said.
“We’ve got business to take care of on Saturday and for us it’s a must-win encounter. Regardless of how the Kings have prepared I expect only the best attitude from my players.”
The Lions suffered a big setback moments before Ackermann named his team yesterday when Warren Whiteley suffered a calf injury in training. Having missed out on the Springboks squad going to the World Cup, Whiteley was due to start at No8 and captain the side. He will now, however, be out for some time; the leadership duties going to centre Howard Mnisi.
Ackermann, meanwhile, has opted to make several rotational changes to his team, with fullback Andries Coetzee back in the mix after a lengthy injury layoff.
Lions: Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combrinck, Stokkies Hanekom, Howard Mnisi (capt), Anthony Volmink, Jaco van der Walt, Lohan Jacobs, Fabian Booysen, Kwagga Smith, Steph de Wit, Martin Muller, MB Lusaseni, Julian Redelinghuys, Malcolm Marx, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements: Robbie Coetzee, Ruan Dreyer, Lourens Erasmus, Jano Venter, Ricky Schroeder, Marnitz Boshoff, Jacques Nel
EP Kings: Hansie Graaff, Siyanda Grey, Ronnie Cooke, Tim Whitehead (capt), Sylvian Mahuza, Karlo Aspeling, Dwayne Kelly, Paul Schoeman, Stefan Willemse, Thembelani Bholi, Cameron Lindsay, Tazz Fuzani, Simon Kerrod, Edgar Marutlulle, Lizo Gqoboka. Replacements: Michael van Vuuren, Basil Short, Cornell Hess, Eital Bredenkamp, Enrico Acker, Elgar Watts, JP du Plessis
Kick-off:7.10pm - The Star