Lions happy to end URC campaign on a high, coach laments Tshituka departure

The Lions were happy to close out their debut season in the United Rugby Championship (URC) on a high with an away win over the Dragons in Newport.

They ended their inaugural campaign with a 21-11 win at Rodney Parade on Saturday, which ended their season as it had started, with an away win.

It was a scrappy match, with the Lions trailing 11-7 at halftime, but a strong second half performance saw them keep the home side scoreless while they were able to pull away.

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“To finish the season with our first away win in Wales, all of us are really proud of that,” said Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“It was a poor first half but we made a big improvement in the second half and our execution was much better.”

Star loose forward

Lions star loose forward Vincent Tshituka was again in immense form in the match and picked up yet another man-of-the-match award in what could be his last URC match for the team.

The Sharks recently announced his signing to the union when his contract ends in December, however Lions CEO Rudolf Straeuli claimed that they had jumped the gun and more needed to be worked out between the two unions.

But there is not much the Lions can do to stop Tshituka leaving at the end of his current contract and there is a chance the Sharks will look to negotiate an early release so he is available for them from the start of the next season.

“Vince has been incredibly consistent, his energy, his work rate, what he is doing is effective. There are still a few things to happen behind the scenes, but how do we replace him,” said Van Rooyen.

“For Vince to come through, unfortunately Cyle Brink had to go, Ruan Ackerman had to go.

“So it’s not nice for any player to leave. We don’t want to lose our best players, but it’s now an opportunity for the next guy to come in and make a difference.”

Building for future

Lions captain Reinhard Nothnagel was happy with the performance from his team, who featured a number of youngsters in their line-up as they prepared for the new season without a number of departing players.

“We had a couple of changes in our starting line-up but we are rebuilding towards the future. We want to play an exciting brand of rugby and that lifts the morale in the whole team and it was great to end off the season with an away win,” said Nothnagel.