The Lions are already almost in a must-win situation, in their hope to make the URC playoffs for the first time.
Despite a dreadful start to the United Rugby Championship (URC) season, the Lions are trying to remain positive and are targeting an upset win over Benetton in Treviso on Saturday to kickstart their campaign.
The Lions began their season with a heavy loss in Wales against Cardiff, before following that up with a tight last gasp defeat to Zebre in Parma this past Sunday, which has seen them pick up just one point from their opening two games.
They are thus already on the back foot in their pursuit of a place in the competition playoffs come the end of the season, and if they are unable to get a positive result against Benetton this weekend it will leave them with an incredible amount of work to do to try and achieve that.
Assistant coach Barend Pieterse, however, said that the coaching group were happy with the team’s step up from the Cardiff game to Zebre, and added if they can make a few fixes, and get a similar bench impact as in last Sunday’s game, they would definitely have a chance against Benetton.
“If we can fix the small mistakes the results could look very different. There was improvement from Cardiff to Zebre, now we need to take the next step in Treviso,” explained Pieterse.
“We felt that after the Cardiff game the guys that came off the bench were really young and inexperienced and then we sort of tried to get a little bit more experience off the bench for this (Zebre) game.”
Bok boost
The Lions have also been bolstered by the arrival of Springbok scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, affectionately known as Krappie, and with their current struggles he might be thrown straight into the mix to try and give them the spark they have been missing.
“Krappie is here with us. He was actually here before we even arrived in Treviso, so he is well rested. He brings a lot of energy and new ideas to the team that he would’ve learned at the Boks. It’s great to have him here,” said Pieterse.
Following Saturday’s match, the Lions return to SA for two home matches before the international break in November, and those are already looking like must-wins games regardless of this weekend’s result.
They will host Welsh side Scarlets, who beat them at Ellis Park just a few months ago at the end of last season, and Irish side Ulster, who they beat comfortably in September last year.
