Slick Highlanders give Lions plenty to ponder

26/07/2016 The Lion's rugby team, during a training session in preparation ahead of their rugby match versus the Highlanders this weekend. Ellis Park, Johannesburg. Picture : Simone Kley

26/07/2016 The Lion's rugby team, during a training session in preparation ahead of their rugby match versus the Highlanders this weekend. Ellis Park, Johannesburg. Picture : Simone Kley

Published Jul 28, 2016

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Johannesburg - They’re more dangerous than the Crusaders, but the Highlanders will find the going far tougher this time when they clash with the Lions in the Super Rugby semi-final at Ellis Park on Saturday.

In their last meeting, in Dunedin in round three on March 12, the Highlanders out-scored the Lions four tries to two in a comfortable 34-15 victory.

Down 3-10 at the interval, Johan Ackermann’s men were still in the game, but two quick tries soon after the resumption and another before the clock hit the 60 minute mark put the hosts 31-3 up and that was that.

However, the Lions know they were their own worst enemy that day.

A quick line-out throw by Ben Smith, who scored his team’s second try on 42 minutes, and an interception by Matt Faddes, who got his second in the 45th after also scoring his team’s first half try, killed off Warren Whiteley's side.

Malakai Fekitoa scored the third try of the second half in the 56th minute after the Lions, who had been on the attack, turned the ball over in a tackle.

Despite scoring consolation tries through bruising centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg and utility forward Ruan Ackermann, there was no coming back for the Lions despite them scoring consolation tries through Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Ruan Ackermann, who’d claimed a sensational 36-32 victory against the Chiefs in Hamilton the previous week.

“It was so disappointing, coming after the Chiefs win,” said Lions assistant coach Swys de Bruyn this week, ahead of the team’s showdown on Saturday.

“I nearly want to say that performance in Dunedin was our worst of the year,” he added.

“There were just so many soft moments … a quick line-out throw, an intercept, a turn-over … they caught us sleeping.”

The Lions hit back the next week with a comfortable victory against the Cheetahs and they’d go on to win their conference and finish second on the overall points table.

Last week Ackermann’s men beat the Crusaders in the quarter-final, a team they lost to in regular season play, ironically in the week following that triumph over the Cheetahs.

De Bruyn claimed the defending champions, the Highlanders, will be a tougher opponent this week than the Crusaders were last Saturday.

“Their team profile is a little different to the Crusaders. They’ve got a workmanlike pack, very similar to our pack, guys who keep going and going. There are a lot of engines in there.

“There are not too many big names in the pack, but they play for each other and don’t stop for the full 80 minutes.

“And then at the back, they’ve got a number of very dangerous players, more All Blacks than the Crusaders. Aaron Smith and Lima Sopoaga, Malakai Fekitoa at centre, Ben Smith at fullback and those wings, (Waisake) Naholo and (Patrick) Osborne.

“They pose a very different threat to the Crusaders backs, and the key thing for us will be to keep the ball away from them as much as possible … you don’t want to be giving them a chance to show off.”

De Bruyn said the Lions must make the most of the 80 minutes in front of them. “The players must give it their all and enjoy it. If we think about it, it’s not very often that a South African team gets the opportunity to host a Super Rugby semi-final … this really is a blessing. They must stay in the moment and make the most of it because before they know it, it’ll be all over.”

The Star

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