The Lions are determined to fight tooth and nail in their remaining matches of the season, refusing to give up on a play-off spot in the United Rugby Championship despite the odds being stacked heavily against them.
They are the lowest ranked of the South African teams in the competition, in 14th spot on 30 points, five below Edinburgh in eighth place, the last of the play-off places. They have four matches to go in the regular season, starting with Saturday’s potentially tricky home clash against seventh-placed Benetton (1.45pm kick-off). That will be followed by clashes against Connacht, Scarlets and Ospreys – all at home.
Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse and flanker Ruan Venter admitted at a media conference on Tuesday that their task is not an easy one, but not impossible.
“In a perfect world we wouldn’t want to be where we are now. But I really think all the coaches, all the players, we really feel like we can still make it (to the URC play-offs),” Pieterse said.
“I think here and there you’re probably hoping for one or two results to go your way as well but we can only take it game for game.
“If we get bonus points in every game, great. If we win all the games and we have to wait for other results, it’s not ideal but in our minds we can 100% still make it if we just do what we need to do.”
Questions were asked about the apparent lack of consistency in a Lions team that lost four games in a row. The last of those, a 24-12 defeat to Edinburgh to round off a tough European tour, saw them dumped out of the Challenge Cup.
The URC is their final shot at a trophy this season, but a long shot. The Bulls are the best placed of the South African teams, in third place in the URC.
“Going back to last season, that was one of the things that we spoke about. We’re definitely not consistent enough and that is something that will be a work-on for us every week because if we want to be in the top eight, if we want to play in Europe, we need to be much more consistent,” Pieterse said.
There is also the issue of having to pick themselves up off the floor and find the motivation for a final push at the end of a difficult campaign for the men from Johannesburg.
“The motivation is still there. We’ve made it very difficult for ourselves with the results that we got on tour,” Venter admitted. “But I think every player here knows that we’ve got to win four out of four and get bonus points to stand a chance. So I think there’s definitely motivation.
“Obviously, we feel that we can still reach the goal of making the playoffs. We won’t give up on ourselves and keep working.”
Should the Lions pull that off, it will be one of the great escapes of the URC.