Lions looking to shore up defence against Stormers in URC

The Lions will be looking to shore up their leaky defence when they take on the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match-up at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 3:45pm).

Over the past few seasons the Lions have prided themselves on a tight defence, letting through few tries on most occasions.

However this season has been completely different, with them letting in 24 tries in eight games, with their only shut out being in dreadful weather conditions in the URC against Zebre.

In every other match they have conceded handful of tries, with Dragons, Edinburgh, Leinster and Munster all dotting down three times in their URC games, while Ulster in the URC, and Ospreys and Section Paloise (Pau) in the Challenge Cup all scored four tries.

The last four games, which have been against Leinster, Munster, Ospreys and Pau, has seen the Lions concede 14 tries and that is something defence coach Jaque Fourie has not been happy with.

“The last few weeks have been disappointing with the amount of tries we have conceded against the four teams,” said Fourie at a press briefing earlier this week.

“Individual errors have cost us, especially when it comes to our discipline. If you give the opposition penalty opportunities, they are going to kick for the corner and maul. It has been very disappointing, but this week we want to get back to how we have been previously with a solid defence.”

Top attack

Although their defence hasn’t been up to scratch, the Lions attack has been in top form with them managing to cross the line plenty of times, which allowed them to outscore teams like Ulster, Edinburgh and Dragons.

Over the past weekend they were able to score six tries to the four from French side Pau, to give them a 43-35 win in the Challenge Cup, which broke a three match losing streak and that has given them good momentum going into the Stormers game, which could very well be another high scoring affair.

“It was important to get back to the Lions way with a win against Pau, we don’t have any excuses for our losses in the previous couple of weeks,” admitted Fourie.

“We are not going to stray from the way we want to play. We will run with the ball and play in the right areas of the field, nothing is going to change for us. Last year when we played against the Stormers there were glimpses of what we want to show in Cape Town on Saturday.”