The Lions are looking to put a tough week in the media behind them and put in a strong performance against Glasgow Warriors, in a United Rugby Championship (URC) match at Ellis Park on Saturday evening (kick-off 4:15pm).
Explosive allegations of player unhappiness in the camp during the week and various other leaks have created an uproar for the match, but the players have rallied and decided to focus on a big performance against the Scottish visitors.
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“This is a good challenge for us. We came together as players and had a good meeting in the week. We have set the goal to make this about the players and the team that will go forward,” explained Lions prop Ruan Dreyer.
“Glasgow are a big challenge, they are fifth on the log. So for us, we just want to focus on the task at hand, take it game by game and make the best of each game going forward.
“At the end of the day each of us has our own future in our own hands, and we can’t be bothered with anything other than giving a good performance on Saturday.”
Despite going down to the Sharks 29-7 in last weekend’s URC match, Dreyer showed his first-half performance, in which the Lions dominated but went into the break level at 7-all, was what he expected to achieve in a full match. to Glasgow.
“If you take the first 40 minutes last week, look at the number of chances we created and the style of play, guys really played for each other and left everything,” Dreyer said.
“It was just a small margin for us to put it all together. That’s what the players are trying to do, to stay consistent and make it an 80-minute performance.
“If we can finish the last few passes, keep the ball one more phase and get those points where we’re going to do well.”
80 minute performance
Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys reiterated the sentiments of Dreyer, while adding that the team is focused on getting all aspects of the game right in the full 80-minute performance, if they have a chance to beat high-flying Glasgow.
“We felt that we had started well in many games, then in the second half we lost momentum and dominance and made mistakes after mistakes that led us to lose because of mistakes and lack of discipline,” said Redelinghuys.
“Our goal is to present a complete 80-minute performance and make sure that all our areas work well. What we have noticed is that in the game some aspects of our game work well and others not, and then next week it is different.
“So we have to make sure that our attack, defence, kicking and set pieces all work well, while staying disciplined and having less turnovers. If we can put all this together for 80 minutes, it will do the job for us.