Heads held high might be a stretch but the Lions have no reason to be downcast after their 24-6 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat to Leinster in Dublin on Saturday.
The visiting team frustrated their much decorated hosts for large swathes of the game and though their defence was courageous and stoic, the Lions did not do enough with the ball to trouble the hosts.
It was a performance of grit but head coach Ivan van Rooyen concedes his team could have seized the moment better. “Work rate and character was fine. Accuracy lacked a bit,” said the coach.
The Lions were always going to be starved of opportunities which meant when they did arrive there was more pressure to execute. “We created one or two opportunities that we couldn’t capitalise on. There were one or two exits that kept us under pressure. We probably lost the small battles and not the big ones.”
Van Rooyen and captain Francke Horn also lamented the lack of precision and clarity of thought in the small moments which ultimately helped create the bigger picture.
“We kind of pushed for a bonus point the last five or six minutes,” said the coach. “Instead of playing territory we took one or two chances inside our own half and they capitalised.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant but 17-11 would have sounded a lot better,” said Van Rooyen.
“They test teams and put you under pressure,” said Horn. “If you try a few things in your half they will try to capitalise on that. There were good learnings for us. In four weeks we play Munster in probably similar conditions.”
It was the Lions’ first visit to the Aviva Stadium against a Leinster team that vaguely resembled their best 23. Van Rooyen insists his team was not overawed by the occasion.
“Apart from a coach or two it was a first game at the Aviva for us. It was a nice first for us but that is not the reason we couldn’t execute or play the way we wanted to play.”
Horn echoed the sentiment. “It never felt that we were out of the game, or that the occasion was too big for us. A few silly errors and one or two moments that we didn’t win when we were in their half. There were good learnings for a lot in the group,” said the captain.
It was a challenging week for the Lions in the build-up to the clash. They lost Monday as a training, or flush out, day after stormy conditions delayed their touchdown in Dublin.
“We left the hotel at seven on Sunday morning and got to our hotel here at five or seven on Monday afternoon,” said Van Rooyen about their departure in Parma and their arrival in Dublin. “I think we travelled 31 hours. Not once was there a negative word from the group. Not once did I see heads hanging. I think that speaks to our character, who we are and what we want to represent. It was tough but it was an opportunity for us to really get close as a group. There is a lot to fix but there is a lot to be proud of.”
The tournament now yields for the November internationals and the Lions’ next match is against Munster in four weeks.
The Bulls went into the break on the back of a stirring come-from-behind 17-15 win over Benetton in Treviso. They looked a beaten side with 12 minutes to go but tries by Reinhardt Ludwig and Akker van der Merwe helped secure them a memorable and character building win.
“I don’t think we played our best rugby,” captain Elrigh Louw admitted. “We faced some challenges losing our flyhalf,” said Louw about the illness that afflicted the Bulls on the eve of the game. “All credit to the boys getting stuck in, it was going to be a tough battle up front. Credit to our backs for getting us into the right areas of the field. We made some discipline errors and some simple mistakes but I’m proud of the boys pulling it through at the end.”
In the context of the competition and their self believe the win was priceless. “It is massive,” said Louw. “You want to win all your away games as well. We knew we messed up against Scarlets and we had to bounce back. It is a flippin’ tough place to come to Treviso to play Benetton and to get a win here is massive for us.”
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