Benetton win vitally important for Lions EPCR campaign

A strong win over Benetton at Ellis Park on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) is integral for the Lions to get their EPCR Challenge Cup campaign off to the best possible start and give themselves a chance of hosting a home playoff after the pool stage.

In the past three seasons of Challenge Cup rugby the Lions have made the knockouts every time, but have only won once, when they hosted a last 16 game against Racing 92 in the 2022-23 campaign.

It is thus important for them to host a playoff, and to do that they will likely need to win at least three of their four pool matches to give them a chance of doing that.

But that job will be made more difficult after coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted that they would be sending weakened teams to face Newcastle Red Bulls in England and Perpignan in France in their away pool matches, due to the tough travel schedule and to keep the squad fresh over the next two months.

Home wins

Getting home wins over Benetton this weekend, and Lyon next month is thus non-negotiable, and the Lions first-stringers will be going all out to get their team off to the best possible start.

The Lions will also want to prove that they have improved, after they were hammered 41-15 in Treviso by Benetton in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in October, and they have since won their last three straight URC games, including against the Bulls at Loftus over the past weekend.

“Having played them in the URC does give us a bit of an advantage prep wise. But it’s a different competition now,” said Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys earlier this week.

“Coach Cash (Van Rooyen) has been driving it all season so far, since the Currie Cup. We have three competitions with one group. So we are looking forward to starting our EPCR campaign on a good note.

“Our focus is fully on Benetton now and staying in process. Obviously we want a positive result, that’s the goal, but the process is going to be the focus. For us getting off to a good start is important.

“If we don’t get off to a good start then we have to travel (to Newcastle) next week (with a likely weakened team), needing to win. So to build our confidence for that trip this weekend is going to be important for us.”

Great strides

Redelinghuys said that the team had made great strides since their poor loss against the Italian side at the end of a difficult overseas tour to start their season, and that they were eager to show off the learnings they had taken from that encounter.

“There were obviously lots of learnings from that match, as it was our third game on tour. We are doing a lot of things differently currently, and we are in a better space,” said Redelinghuys.

“We have to have a stronger defence than we did in that game, and this past weekend against the Bulls, and we will also have to have to change a few things up on attack.

“They have a lot of Test players, they have sent a strong side over for this match, and they play more of a Test rugby style game. So we have to have patience, stay in the contest and then wait for our opportunities and not try force things.

“That’s where we got caught out last time, they capitalised on our inaccuracies and scored off our mistakes. So there were a lot of learnings from that game and the proof will be in the pudding on Saturday if we have taken those in and improved.”