“It was a great character win, regardless that the rugby efficiency wasn’t nice.”
Whereas Lions boss Ivan van Rooyen was not all that happy along with his group’s rugby efficiency, he hailed the preventing spirit of his gamers of their emphatic 49-24 United Rugby Championship win in opposition to the Dragons at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The win, simply the third in seven outings for the Joburg-based aspect, took the Lions as much as ninth place within the standings with 19 factors.
Van Rooyen’s group overcame a controversial early purple card for lock Ruben Schoeman to win comfortably ultimately, the group scoring six tries.
“It was a great character win, regardless that the rugby efficiency wasn’t nice,” mentioned Van Rooyen after the match.
“We’ve all the time mentioned we need to be happy with the tightness on this group and the best way we performed with 14 males says so much about that and the character within the guys. There’s actual cohesion on this group.”
Not absolutely glad however stuffed with reward
Captain Marius Louw was additionally not absolutely glad with the efficiency, however he, too, was stuffed with reward for the trouble put in by his gamers.
“We’ve been ready earlier than the place we now have needed to play with 14 males and received, so it’s not like we’re not used to it. I assumed the blokes responded properly after the purple card and the power ranges lifted considerably, so I’m joyful proper now.
“However that mentioned, we made plenty of errors, our breakdown wasn’t ok, and we’ll need to be higher in opposition to stronger groups in a while. However we confirmed plenty of bravery and scored some good tries.”
The Lions led 18-10 on the break and scored six tries in whole by Edwill van der Merwe (two), Quan Horn (two), Henco van Wyk and Morne van der Merwe. Flyhalf Sanele Nohamba kicked 19 factors.
Van der Merwe gave credit score to captain Louw, who he mentioned led the aspect properly following Schoeman’s purple card halfway by the primary half.
“Credit score to the boys and credit score to Marius … he calmed everybody down. We merely needed to reset a bit and the boys stepped up properly,” mentioned the No 9. “All of us needed to dig deep and we did that.”
The Lions will now flip their consideration to the European Problem Cup and a match in opposition to Perpignan on Sunday.