Lions seek redemption against Connacht in United Rugby Championship

The struggling Lions are expecting a backlash from Connacht when they visit Ellis Park on Saturday for their United Rugby Championship clash (4pm kick-off).

The Irish side came within a whisker of grabbling a dramatic late win in last weekend’s thrilling 34-29 loss against the Stormers in Cape Town. A try in the final play of the game was ruled out for obstruction. Lions assistant coach Julian Redelinghuys feels that this will make Connacht more dangerous this weekend.

“If you had watched the game against the Stormers you would see that they are starting to play better and better as the season is progressing,” he said in a media conference on Tuesday.

“I thought they were unlucky. It was a good call for obstruction, I believe, but they actually scored in the finishing minutes, so it could have been a win for them.

“They are definitely sitting and saying they would have or could have had one win already in South Africa and definitely targeting this game.”

Having come off second best in Saturday’s 42-31 defeat against Benetton, he expects another tough challenge against Connacht.

“They’re a good attacking team, like all the Irish teams, good in structure,” Redelinghuys said. “They’re going to put pressure on us.

“They’ve got a decent kicking game, a good all-round game. They’re also in the running for the play-offs, so we’re not expecting them to neglect any effort or energy from their side. We’re expecting a good game from them.

“But a lot of the focus was on us this week, us being together, us having cohesion, us being the best we can be and responding as good as we can be.”

That cohesion Redelinghuys was referring to has been sorely lacking in recent Lions displays. They are on a horror losing streak of five matches in a row.

Saturday’s capitulation against Benetton was the latest blow to their slim URC play-off hopes. In light of their recent slump, Redelinghuys was quizzed on the difficulty of motivating the Lions players for matches to come.

“The big thing is the professional player is motivated by himself. I think internal motivation is the right kind of motivation. The right players will have the right motivation. As coaches, it’s not really our job to motivate the guys, it’s our job to get the guys prepped,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, that consecutive poor performances could dent confidence in the team.

Scrumhalf Morne van den Berg alluded to the tendency to “try too hard” to fix things when they were going pear-shaped, as has often been the case lately, with schoolboy errors creeping into their play.

“I can’t say to you exactly what it is. It definitely isn’t a lack of willingness. I thinks it’s maybe because we’re trying too hard,” he said, in trying to explain the lapses. “There’s a couple of factors.

"It is a pattern that we did identify that went through our last three or four games, and it is something that we really want to rectify. And it is something that we did speak about the last four weeks. But I really think it’s time that we stop speaking and start acting on it.”

Saturday’s game will prove whether the Lions have found a cure for their ‘mystery’ ailment. It will be followed by home URC matches against Scarlets and Ospreys to close out the regular season.