The Lions will be desperate to bounce back against Zebre with a win after going down to Cardiff in their opening match of the URC season.
The Lions are hoping to welcome a few players back from injury to give them a boost ahead of their second match of the United Rugby Championship (URC) season, against Zebre in Parma on Sunday afternoon.
It was a poor start to the season for the Lions as they went down 33-20 to Cardiff in Wales over the past weekend, and they will be desperate to bounce back with a win against the Italian side to kickstart their campaign.
Key to that could be the return of players such as flyhalf Chris Smith, who was concussed during their Currie Cup final loss over Griquas and thus ruled out of the Cardiff game, and a few others who are on the verge of returning to full fitness.
Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted they would only know by Wednesday who would be available for the Zebre match, but admitted he hoped they would have a couple of reinforcements.
“Injury-wise, I’m not aware of anything at the moment (from the Cardiff match). With a full day of travel ahead, we’ll only know by Wednesday if we can get one or two guys back,” said Van Rooyen after the Cardiff loss.
“There are players already on tour with us who might be fit and ready to add to the match-day squad for Sunday’s game.”
The Lions should, however, be worried after a dismal performance against Cardiff, who are a side they should be backing themselves to beat, especially if they want to achieve their goal of making the URC playoffs come the end of the season.
Unlucky loss
Last season they were desperately unlucky to go down 20-17 to them, also in Cardiff, in a match they really should have won, but this past weekend they were clearly second best against a team that recently lost their head coach, and had to deal with a 20-minute red card as well.
Despite those worries Van Rooyen believes it was skill errors and poor weather, which he has alluded to on numerous occasions before, that cost the Lions the win.
“I think it was a game that was in the balance, and the result was probably determined by two or three moments. We handled the pressure well and played a good pressure game up until about 15 minutes to go. Then the conditions changed, and we made two crucial errors,” explained Van Rooyen.
“The one scrum we thought we’d done enough to earn a penalty, but unfortunately we didn’t. Then we made a skill error, they kicked a 50/22. From the penalty that followed, they managed to score from a maul.
“And then obviously Henco (van Wyk) was basically over the tryline but just couldn’t dot the ball down. We felt those were two massive moments that could have turned the momentum.
“They were really tough. Luckily there wasn’t too much wind, but it was wet. With the scoreboard pressure in the last 10 minutes, they just managed to keep us pinned in our half. We also made one or two skill errors that kept us there, and in those conditions strangled us.”
