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Rugby

Lions hoping for third time lucky

───   MORGAN PIEK 08:32 Fri, 22 Jan 2021

Lions hoping for third time lucky | News Article

The Lions will be hoping for third time lucky when they tackle the Bulls on Saturday afternoon in the semi-finals of the Currie Cup.


In their past two encounters during both the SuperRugby Unlocked series and the Currie Cup, it was the team from Pretoria that claimed the bragging rights in the Jukskei derby.

Lions coach, Cash van Rooyen, told OFM Sport that it’s important to put the Bulls under pressure for 80 minutes.

“We played them twice, came close twice. The learning from the previous game was that we allowed them to dictate the tempo of the game completely.

“We did create enough opportunities, we just didn’t manage to take them.

“You need to be brave in play-off games. You’ve got to be able and willing to give it a full crack. Having a crack isn’t necessarily just throwing the ball around. Having a crack is to see if we can dictate the tempo of the game a little bit.

“To see if we can get forward dominance and how can we exert that dominance if they put us under pressure on defence and it is about how we can transition that to maybe a superior kicking game.

“Having a crack is being able to apply pressure in different ways. We really had a good review after our previous game against the Bulls and we’re excited to see how we do this weekend.

“We’re keen to go there and see if we can put them under pressure. As I said before, whether it’s with or without the ball in hand or with a tactical kicking game.

“We’ve worked hard these last two weeks on our decision-making and how we can apply pressure and hopefully constant pressure for 80 minutes.”

Kick-off in the Jacaranda City at 14:00, while at 16:30, Western Province tackle the Sharks at Newlands.

Bulls - 15 David Kriel, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 Cornal Hendricks, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Duane Vermeulen (captain), 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Sintu Manjezi, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Schalk Erasmus, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.

Replacements - 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Jacques van Rooyen, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Jan Uys, 20 Arno Botha, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Lions – 15 Tiaan Swanepoel, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies (captain), 9 André Warner, 8 Len Massyn, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Sti Sithole.

Replacements - 16 Jan-Henning Campher, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Reinhard Nothnagel, 20 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 21 Morné van den Berg, 22 Dan Kriel, 23 Francke Horn, 24 Nathan McBeth, 25 EW Viljoen, 26 Ross Cronjé.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

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