Lions hunting comeback win over ‘bogey’ team Ospreys

Although disappointment from missing out on the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs for the fourth straight season will be fresh for the Lions, they will still have plenty of motivation when they close out their campaign against Ospreys at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon (5:15pm).

It is a dead rubber season ending game for both teams, with neither able to make the top eight to qualify for the URC knockouts, but the hosts will arguably be the hungrier team to close out with what would be a morale boosting win.

Having struggled immensely down the back straight of the URC, including suffering damaging home defeats against Benetton a few weeks ago and Scarlets last weekend, the Lions will be eager to rectify that with a big win in front of their home fans.

Ospreys have also been a bogey team of the Lions over the past couple of seasons, with them suffering three straight defeats against the Welsh side across the Challenge Cup and URC.

Earlier this season in December a second string Lions team was comfortably beaten 30-14 by Ospreys in their Challenge Cup opener in Swansea.

Last season they were stunned by Ospreys 38-28 in their Challenge Cup pool match in January, while they comfortably went down 36-21 to the hosts in their URC encounter in Wales.

Back to winning ways

The Lions will now want to arrest that slide of defeats and get back to winning ways against a team they should be confident of beating more often than not.

“It has been spoken about in the team this week. Osprey’s have almost been like a bogey team for us, so it will be a bit of a consolation for us if we do well against them this weekend,” admitted Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys at a press conference during the week.

“They are a good team. If you watched the game against the Sharks this past weekend, even though the scoreline doesn’t reflect it, they are really tough at the breakdown.

“They are a good physical team and they have a good kicking game. That’s where we felt we fell short against them previously. We have those past experiences and if we can correct them this weekend it will be a positive for us amongst all the negative.”

Ospreys also edged the Lions in the fight for the top eight last season, with both teams ending on 50 points, but the Welsh side snuck into the playoffs due to having won a game more than the Johannesburg side who had to settle for ninth place, so a bit of revenge will be in order.

“They played their last game against Cardiff and we needed them to keep them out and not let them get five points. We got on the plane in Cape Town (after playing the Stormers) and landed (in Johannesburg) to hear we had been knocked out,” said Redelinghuys.

“We don’t blame them for that, we only blame ourselves for not doing enough to make it through, and that is the same for us this season.”