The Lions are officially up and running in the URC after two bonus point home wins.
Lions captain Francke Horn says his team are finally moving in the right direction after a difficult start to the season was offset by two bonus point home wins that has moved them into the United Rugby Championship (URC) top eight after the first block.
The URC now has a one month break for the November internationals, before resuming at the end of next month, along with the EPCR competitions kicking off, making for a tough December and January period.
Crucially, the Lions will head into the festive period with renewed confidence and good momentum, after starting off their URC campaign with a dreadful overseas tour.
They only picked up one point from their opening three games, going down comfortably to Cardiff, were edged by Zebre and hammered by Benetton, and returned to South Africa second bottom of the log, and had not looked good in any of their matches.
They were lucky to face the only team that seemed to be playing worse than them at that stage, bottom of the table Scarlets, in their first home game and despite an unconvincing performance, they secured a 29-18 win to get their season up and running.
High flying Ulster
That result gave the team plenty of confidence and they used that in the buildup to their huge encounter against a high-flying and unbeaten Ulster, who had beaten the Bulls in Belfast and Springbok-laden Sharks in Durban in the lead up to the match.
The Lions then produced their best performance of the season so far, recovering from a 19-14 halftime deficit to outscore the visitors 35-12 in a brilliant second half showing, to power to an impressive 49-31 win.
Horn explained that it had been difficult for the players to stay positive after their poor start to the campaign, but that they knew if they just knuckled down and kept to the mission, that things would come right.
“You obviously hear the noise from outside and you see the stuff (that is said). It takes a lot of composure and mental strength to know that what you are doing is right, and that the (positive) outcome will come if you do your job and execute better,” explained Horn.
“I think that everyone is on the same page. So it was a tough three weeks (tour). And even after last week (the win over Scarlets), we weren’t happy with the performance. But you could see that everything has built up to now (the win over Ulster).
“The guys were firing and played some really good rugby and I think this (result) is going to do us a world of good. Especially the confidence we will get out of it, and we will look to just keep building this season.”
Bulls challenge
The first match after the break for the Lions is an incredibly tough clash against the Bulls at Loftus, who will themselves be fired up to improve after they also endured a poor overseas tour.
With the Bulls sixth on 14 points and the Lions eighth on 11, it will be an important game for both teams to keep themselves in the top half of the URC log and Horn admitted that his side would have to keep improving to challenge them.
“There is still a lot to fix, but there is a lot to be proud of. We have some good stuff to work on. Everyone’s emotional after a win like that (against Ulster), but we’re still only on 11 points on the log,” said Horn.
“But the feeling in the camp is very different from what (other) people think. We know we’re moving in the right direction.”
