Lions must do well against Stormers, says Redelinghuys

The Lions will be out to get rid of the notion that they are the whipping boys among the SA franchises in the United Rugby Championship (URC) when they take on the Stormers on Saturday at Ellis Park (4pm). 

The Johannesburg outfit does not have a good record in SA derbies in the URC. In the seven games they have played against the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls they have only won one game. Their players often look out of place when playing derbies and are easily bullied off the park.

In their last game against a local team, they were blown away by the Bulls in the opening game of the season in September. So, this weekend they will take on the defending champions and will be keen on putting up a decent performance and try change the trend of playing badly in derbies. 

“It’s something we have realised (the bad performances against SA franchises),” acknowledged Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys.

“We had a look, and against all the SA teams we perform worse than against foreign teams, not in results necessarily but performance. All our stats show that, so that’s something we are aware of and something we would like to correct.

“There’s no better chance than doing it at home in the park, for us, it’s an opportunity to change the perception and the negative roll we are on, and start putting in a good one,” he said. 

The Lions may be fortunate on Saturday and take on a depleted Stormers side as there’s a chance that players such as Damian Willemse, Evan Roos, Steven Kitshoff and others,  who are in camp with the Springboks, are unlikely to be available. 

“We don’t have clarity around who is going to play from them,” Redelinghuys said.

“It’ll be nothing else than a massive SA derby this weekend. For us we can’t focus on who we are going to play against, we are focusing on what we can do and what’s best for us, and whatever is in front of us this weekend we’ll have to deal with that,” he said.