Wounded Lions must get back on feet quickly, says Van Rooyen

The Lions must get back on their feet as soon as possible and not waste precious time dwelling on the disappointment of being on the receiving end of a 57-15 mauling at the hands of the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, coach Ivan van Rooyen said.

In what proved to be a massacre in the Jukskei derby, the Lions leaked eight tries in a United Rugby Championship clash that exposed flaws in their game plan.

Next up for the Lions is a tough trip to France, where they face La Rochelle in their opening game in the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday (kickoff 6.30pm).

“It was one of those frustrating days where even when the Bulls drop the ball and we’ve got five guys around it, we seem to knock it on,” Van Rooyen said.

“The early injury to prop Sebastian Lombard eventually played a part in the scrums, if I refer to the last 20 to 30 minutes.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the Bulls.

"They were exceptional and it felt like we played against 10 or 12 Springboks, and they were good.

“But in saying that, with all the respect in the world, I thought we were really below par.

"A lot of the fixes, a lot of the things we need to fix, will be on us.

“The first fix for us will be our defence, which we haven’t really been exploited on thus far this season.

“We did learn big lessons at Loftus.

"It is never nice to learn lessons like this. Never nice to take 50. Is there any good time to take 50? I don’t think so.

“But if you have to choose it early, take it early and learn the lessons, and hopefully we can adapt quickly.

“It’s up to us to make a decision after this loss.

"We can sulk about this, or we can collectively pull in and make a decision.

“But there’s no decision to be made by this Lions team.

"It’s just to get collectively back on the horse and jump on the plane and go fight that battle.”

Lions captain Francke Horn said his team needed to be faster out of the starting blocks in their remaining fixtures.

“If you give the Bulls 31 points in the first half, with, I think, three tries that didn’t go past two phases, that puts you under pressure,” he said.

“Now you try things and you try harder, and sometimes the easy solution is to actually try less and just do your job better.

“It would also be a shame if the one result determines the whole of the next seven months.

“Knowing the team and knowing the guys that we have, it won’t happen.

“We just need to be more focused, more clinical.

"And if things go a bit bad, just calm down and get cool heads and don’t try harder, if that makes sense.”

• Follow The Herald WhatsApp channel today and stay connected to the stories shaping our world.

The Herald