‘Huge disappointment’: Van Rooyen says small margins cost Lions again this season

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen claimed that small margins scuppered their goal of making the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs for a fourth consecutive season, as they prepare to close out their campaign against Ospreys at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions disappointingly bowed out of contention ahead of their poor 32-19 loss to Scarlets on Sunday, which may have played a part in the team delivering a poor performance to go down comfortably in that match.

But it can’t be blamed solely on a a few close games, but more on a dismal run since starting their season like a house on fire, winning their opening four games which had them sitting near the top of the log at that stage of the season.

Since then the Lions have won just three matches, while losing 10, which has included their usual impenetrable home form being breached on a number of occasions, most recently against Benetton and Scarlets, in games they needed to win to have a chance of making the knockouts.

Lofty goal

Van Rooyen had set a lofty goal of a top four placing for the Lions at the start of the season, but they are now destined to finish well outside of the top 10 in possibly their worst campaign.

“It is a huge disappointment. We set our targets and we started well. It is always tough in January, February and March when you are bouncing back between Europe and here, but even then we felt we were there to put ourselves in a position to qualify,” explained Van Rooyen.

“If we scored the last try last week (in their win over Connacht two weekends ago), we would have been within a point of seventh or eighth, that’s how close the margins were. We felt we were not consistent enough to be there (top eight) yet.

“It is a big learning for us, for a group and individuals. We are young, so it is a challenge and that speaks to consistency, but that is also the challenge.”

Must win

The 13^th placed Lions now have to beat Ospreys to avoid their worst finish on the URC table, which was 12^th in their debut season, but it will still be their worst points tally in the competition to date.

They will need to pick themselves up from a dismal effort against Scarlets, in a game they really should have won to help at least finish their campaign on a high, despite not making the playoffs.

“We did speak about coming out and having a purpose in the game, even though the results didn’t go our way. But I don’t think that’s the reason why we lost, to be honest. We still did enough out there to show (we wanted to win against Scarlets),” said Van Rooyen.

“I don’t think they wanted it more, I just think they were more accurate than us. Too many errors, and an easy try from them. They probably won the breakdown battle, and because of our errors they dictated the tempo of the game.”