Johannesburg - The Lions did not heed the warnings that they self-prophesied last week ahead of their 31-31 draw against Dragons on Saturday at Emirates Airline Park.
Before their debut in the EPCR Challenge Cup, the Joburgers knew full well that they would be disrupted at the breakdowns, that the Welsh team would run at them, keep ball-in-hand at all costs, and target their defensive lines with quick-plays.
The visitors did that and more with scrumhalf Rhodi Willaims a particular menace around the fringes as he took advantage of some sloppy defending. In hindsight, the Dragons should have won the match, but suffered from their own foggy decision-making – especially when they had the Lions on the ropes in the last 15 minutes of the match – by opting for valour instead of discretion.
They decided on attacking plays in that period, instead of slotting over easy points, and made crucial errors, much to the relief of the Lions.
Their brain fart, for a lack of better description, nearly cost them as Jordan Hendrikse lined up a monstrous 60m penalty in the final play of the game. It had the legs but not the direction, and it was then the turn of the Dragons to breathe a sigh of relief.
“I wouldn’t say we are satisfied,” Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen said with a nervous laugh after the match, “and I don’t know if thankful is the right word, if I am being honest. It is three points more than nothing and two less than what we wanted.”
The Lions did not start well, allowing an ever-improving Dragons, under Dai Young, far too much possession and territory – 56% and 54% respectively, according to the stats. Nevertheless, they will take much comfort in the fact that they did not crumble under the pressure – as would have been the case in previous seasons – trading blows with an international-laden team.
Discipline, however, has become a massive bugbear for the Lions team.
They conceded eight penalties in their own half, which put them under all sorts of unnecessarily pressure and also received another yellow card – their eighth of the season in nine games in all competitions.
It was a major contributor to the draw.
Said Van Rooyen: “If you are going to give them eight or nine penalties in 40 minutes, you cannot be prepared to take them on tactically or in whatever area you play in.
“If you allow a team to enter your 22 seven or eight times in that 40, it is going to be tough. There was some good character and fightback to get back into the second half but we are obviously disappointed with the result.
“I think there were a couple of mistakes. It is a compound effect of a couple of things.
“We knew that they like to trap us in the ruck and the referee was quite harsh on that. Conceding a couple of not rolling away penalties was silly from our side. There were one or two offside ones.
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“In one sequence, we missed about four or five tackles before they scored ... It is not just one thing and just defensively that first 40 wasn’t good from us.”
The Lions will next face Stade Francais, who beat Benetton 24-14 this weekend, on Friday. Who the French outfit sends to South Africa remains to be confirmed, but Van Rooyen and Co know what will now be required to qualify for the last-16 and a favourable draw.
“Without trying to sound arrogant,” he said, “we will have to beat Stade Francais, and then we will have to beat Dragons away.
“We have played against them there already, so it won’t be a new thing for us ... we know what to expect there and we know what we are going to be doing there. Friday night will be important and then when we play them again in mid-January, it will be important again.”
IOL Sport