Lions prop Asenthi Ntlabakanye believes they can get their first win of the URC season at home against Scarlets.
Hulking Lions prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye believes that home comforts could be just what the doctor ordered to cure the Lions’ ills and get their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign up and running when they take on Scarlets at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Lions lost all of their tour matches, against Cardiff, Zebre and Benetton, in the last three weeks and sit just one place above their Welsh rivals this weekend, at the bottom of the log.
It is thus a must-win game for them if they are to have any chance of chasing their goal of finishing in the URC top eight and making the playoffs for the first time, while a loss will likely already leave them with too much to do over the rest of the competition.
Confident team
Ntlabakanye says the players are confident, and that they are eager to utilise home ground advantage to get them up and running and back to winning ways.
“It’s good to be back home after three weekends away. Both teams this weekend are under pressure. Scarlets (with two losses) just got a hiding from the Stormers, and we (Lions, with three losses) got beaten by a better Benetton side,” explained Ntlabakanye.
“So we will need to rectify that at home. The prep (so far) has been good. Confidence is not a thing that can just be spoken about, you have to go out and show it. So hopefully we can show a lot of that this Saturday.
“We are only three games in (to the season). We haven’t registered a W yet. But we have two games at home now to fix that. The first thing is to play well as a team. If we can do that normally the (positive) results follow.
“So we have been focusing on our own performances. I know we haven’t been good (enough) over the past three weeks, but we believe we can rectify that back at home.”
Small moments
Ntlabakanye says it is small moments that are costing the Lions.
“It is small margins. You get penalties in their 22m, we don’t quite get our set piece right. They go the opposite side, get entry into our 22m and score points. So the margins are really small in this competition,” said Ntlabakanye.
“The excuse of being a young group is a thing of the past. We have been together now for quite some time. I think its about getting to grips with each other as a group in general. Then to start performing well for each other and for the coaches as well.”
