By picking his strongest available team for Friday’s match against the Southern Kings, Lions boss Johan Ackermann has all but revealed he will rest a good number of his key players for the team’s final regular season match, against the Jaguares in Beunos Aires, next week.
The Lions cannot be overtaken as Africa Conference 2 leaders and will host a Super Rugby quarter-final in a few weeks’ time, and to give his team their best chance of winning that game, Ackermann is set to travel to Argentina with a slightly weakened side. Not that the coach has decided yet.
“We first need to win this weekend and hopefully get the bonus point and then we’ll look at the situation,” said Ackermann yesterday. “At least we’re playing on Friday so we have an extra day to decide ... and see what happens in the other matches. Our decision (to travel with a full-strength team or not) though won’t only be based on the points table.
“There are other factors to be considered, like freshening up some of the players, like Faf de Klerk, Elton Jantjies, Franco Mostert, Jaco Kriel and Ruan Combrinck ... guys who’ve played a lot of rugby recently. It’s pretty much got everything to do with the well-being of the players before the quarter-finals.”
Ackermann has picked the same 23 that won against the Sharks last weekend for Friday’s match against the Kings.”It’s great for continuity and keeping momentum.
“The Boks in the squad may battle a bit, because this is another big game for them, but I’d rather these guys get some more game-time behind them (after the international break) now and then have the option to rest players the following week (for the Jaguares match). There are also some guys in the team who need to play as much as possible now because they didn’t have as much rugby in June as some other players.”
First things first though, the Lions have to pick up a win against the Kings this weekend. And, in spite of the men from the Eastern Cape struggling to make an impact this season, Ackermann believes they’ll give his charges a good test. “In most of their games this year the Kings were in it for long periods. They started strongly every time and only later on did they fall away,” said Ackermann. “We certainly don’t want to fall behind against them and give them hope so we’re going to have to start strongly against them.
“We mustn’t forget that their players will be desperate now to measure themselves against a few new Springboks (in the Lions team). The Kings won’t need any motivation ... the coach can simply say to them, go out and play against the leading side in the competition, go show you can play at this level”. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
“We’re going to have to be at our best or we may just come unstuck,” said Ackermann. “Of course we’ll back ourselves at home, but I also know from my playing days that often after a great win the standards can drop and you end up losing or grinding out a win the next weekend.
“That’s the mental challenge facing us this week. We need to put everything aside, focus on the jersey and respect the Kings and go out and get the victory.”
TEAM
Lions STARTING XV: Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combrinck, Lionel Mapoe, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Courtnall Skosan, Elton Jantjies, Faf de Klerk, Ruan Ackermann, Warwick Tecklenburg, Jaco Kriel (capt), Franco Mostert, Andries Ferreira, Julian Redelinghuys, Malcolm Marx, Dylan Smith; Replacements: Armand van der Merwe, Corné Fourie, Jacques van Rooyen, Lourens Erasmus, Cyle Brink, Ross Cronje, Howard Mnisi, Sylvian Mahuza