Lions coach: Our top-eight dream is still alive
07/05/2024 13:03
Assistant coach Barend Pieterse said the Lions haven't given up on qualifying for the Vodacom URC playoffs for the first time, but must be more clinical against Cardiff on Saturday.
The Lions host the Welsh outfit in round 16 of the URC at Ellis Park. With three rounds of the regular season remaining, Ivan van Rooyen's charges are in 11th place on the standings, while Cardiff languish in the bottom half of the table in 12th spot.
The round 15 results hurt some sides that were assumed to be climbing up the log, most notably the Lions,, but there is still enough of a logjam with 11 teams in the hunt for silverware in the race to the final eight.
The Lions are one bonus-point win behind sixth-placed Connacht, and six behind the DHL Stormers. Benetton occupy eighth spot and are also on 44 points like Connacht and Ulster in seventh.
Speaking in a Lions conference on Tuesday, Pieterse highlighted the importance of putting in a big performance this week while addressing the team's inconsistency.
"We need to get as many points out of this week's game, and then again next week. But the top-eight dream is still alive for us, and that's genuinely something that we talk about and train for every day," he told reporters.
"I mentioned it a few weeks ago before the Leinster game, we're up and down and that's been our season. Good game, bad game, good game, bad game…
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"That's something we have to look at, and something that needs improvement like yesterday already because if we want to be successful as a union and want to play in the Champions Cup, that's something we need to be better at."
Cardiff last won a match on 26 December and head to the Republic on the back of nine successive defeats, but Pieterse cautioned the Lions against underestimating the tourists.
"A lot of those losses were very close so it's not as if it's been all massive scores against them, and they've been unlucky in a few games as well just like we were at the beginning of the season," he said.
"They are a good team and they'll get confidence from that game against Munster we played here [two weeks ago], and take stuff out of that.
"But from our side, we have to be better in our set piece, particularly the execution. We have to be in their face, we can't let them run on to us, and on defence we have to get off the line.
"We have to give our backs solid enough ball from our scrums and lineouts and when we're close to our tryline, we have to come away with points.
"If you look at the Munster game, we had three opportunities in the first five minutes and we couldn't score once. We need to be more clinical in all aspects of the game."
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
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