The Lions can be incredibly proud of fronting up against the mighty All Blacks and giving them a run for their money.
Lions fullback Quan Horn, wearing Beauden Barrett’s jersey, gives a thumbs up after his team almost upset the All Blacks at Ellis Park on Tuesday night. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
An impressive performance by the Lions against the All Blacks will give them a boost ahead of the coming United Rugby Championship (URC) and Champions Cup seasons later this year.
The URC season kicks off on the final weekend of September, while the Champions Cup will launch in a new earlier window in October.
It will be a massive season for the Lions who will want to back up reaching the URC playoffs for the first time last season, with another run to the knockouts, while it will be their first ever Champions Cup campaign.
It is thus going to be a big challenge for them to juggle both the URC and Champions Cup, but a brilliant performance against the All Blacks will give the team plenty of confidence that they can front up against the best.
On Tuesday night the Lions led from the fourth minute, before taking a 21-17 lead into halftime, and then led 35-17 after 46 minutes before the All Blacks‘ comeback started, with them scoring three tries in 13 minutes to take the lead for the first time in the 62nd minute and then see out a 41-35 win.
“We lost the last 12 minutes. You can look at it in two ways. (We can) be really proud of the first 68 minutes, or be really critical about the last 12,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen about how the Lions faded towards the end.
“For 68 minutes we matched them with our repeated efforts. Hopefully we can fix those last 12 minutes over the next few weeks. Once we got tired, they got around us pretty easily. There’s definitely work to do.”
Let it slip
The fact that Van Rooyen can be proud of the effort, and be aware that they “let it slip”, bodes well for the Lions.
“To be in the fight for 77 minutes (before the last-minute try) is a proud moment. What I liked most was the feeling in the change room, we felt we let it slip,” explained Van Rooyen.
“We’re still four or five weeks away from the season, so this is almost a restart. The boys will recover this week, then we’ve got two tough weeks of prep, a warm-up against the Sharks and then Leinster. It’s a sprint before the marathon.”
The Lions kick off their URC campaign against defending champions Leinster at Ellis Park on Saturday, 26 September, while their first game in the Champions Cup will be away against French giants La Rochelle, who won the competition back-to-back in 2021-22 and 2022-23, on Saturday 17 October.
