Lions banking on discipline, patience

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 09: Lions players celebrate the win during the Super Rugby match between Emirates Lions and Highlanders at Emirates Airline Park on May 09, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images)

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 09: Lions players celebrate the win during the Super Rugby match between Emirates Lions and Highlanders at Emirates Airline Park on May 09, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images)

Published May 16, 2015

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Johannesburg - Two factors will determine whether Johan Ackermann’s Lions can continue their march towards the Super Rugby play-offs when they host the Brumbies at Ellis Park on Saturday: Discipline and patience.

It has been quite a stunning run so far for the Lions and following the defeat suffered by the Bulls in Auckland on Friday, there’s the real chance that by later tonight Ackermann’s team can be leading the SA Conference - and be in the play-off places.

Just four log points separate the Bulls and the Lions and with the Stormers having a bye, a win with a bonus point on Saturday would put the Joburg team top of the pile in South Africa. It’s perhaps this extra bit of motivation the Lions might need to get the job done on Saturday. But then, the Lions have shown all season they don’t need outside factors to motivate them; all they’re interested in is winning from one week to the next.

But, there will be no way the Lions didn’t take notice of what happened to the Bulls on Friday and they’ll now know just how important it is to keep on picking up the victories. Ackermann’s men are running out of matches very quickly - after Saturday they’ll have three more, two of which are away from home - so it’s going to require a focused and dedicated effort on Saturday against Australia’s leading side.

Ackermann has made it pretty clear what his side need to do. “The Australian sides like to keep the ball through many phases and the Brumbies, with the Waratahs, are probably also among the more physical teams we’ll face. We’re going to have to be patient in defence but also very disciplined,” he said this week.

Indeed, the Brumbies tried their best to unsettle the Stormers a week ago with some questionable, and at times highly ill-disciplined, play and they may well employ the same tactics against the Lions. “We’re going to have to do our best not to get sucked into anything,” said captain Warren Whiteley. “We’ll leave that part of the game up to the referee and focus on what we have to do.”

The word patience was also brought up by returning lock Martin Muller, who’ll no doubt boost the Lions’ line-out, something which nearly cost them dearly against the Highlanders a week ago. “The Brumbies are one of the more intelligent sides in the competition. They like to take the ball through a lot of phases so we’re going to have to defend well and stay in our structures.

“We also know that when we have the ball we’re not going to be allowed to break them down on the first phase so we’re going to have to keep at it and hopefully wear them down over time as the match goes on.”

There’s not been much wrong with the Lions’ performances of late but where they’ll be looking for a big step up is the line-out play. They lost five balls on their own throw last week, but against a team as clinical, and now also desperate as the Brumbies, they may not be able to get away with such sloppiness this time.

“It’s a massive part of the game and we put in a lot of extra work this week so hopefully it comes together,” said Ackermann.

He’ll be holding thumbs his team can sort that part of their game out because if they do there’s no reason why they can’t also knock over the men from Canberra.

The Lions are no longer the push-overs of yesteryear but on Saturday could well be a test of another kind for this young Lions team; they know what’s at stake should they manage to collect all five log points on offer so, mentally, this is truly a big one for them.

Saturday Star

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