Cape Town — Lions assistant coach Jaque Fourie reckons they are “100% better” than they were in the inaugural season of the United Rugby Championship (URC).
At the weekend, the Lions edged Ospreys 28-27 at the Swansea.com Stadium after falling short against the Bulls at Ellis Park in round one.
Last season, the Johannesburg side were the only South African team to miss out on qualification for the Champions Cup after finishing 12th in the URC.
In round two, the Lions won only their third URC match on foreign shores to make it a clean sweep for the SA teams.
Reflecting on the match, Fourie praised the character the team showed in Swansea.
“It was a close match … I think at the end, we did quite well to pull it through. I think the character of the team is going to go a long way for us,” the former Springbok centre said from Wales on Monday ahead of Friday’s game against Cardiff (8.35pm kick-off).
“In saying that, I think we had a lot of opportunities, and we gave away a lot of easy tries that we shouldn’t have. We will work on that this week, and we will get it right for the weekend.
“I can never fault the guys’ effort. From the first whistle, every time we made contact, it was big contact. So, I can’t fault the guys. Now we just need to work together.
“As the game went on, we started working together as a team and as a unit, and in the second half, they started playing deeper and deeper and kicking more.
“So, I think they felt it. I think we were hurting them a little bit.”
In reference to the first URC season, Fourie said: “Looking back to last year, I think we are 100% better. It’s our second year in the system, and I think the guys are only now really coming into it and understanding it the way the coaches want them to understand it.
“We have been putting a lot of time into it, 20% of the game is set-piece and 80% is unstructured, so we are spending a lot of time on our structured defence and the 20% on vacuum defence and line-out defence.
“From there on, it’s just defending what’s in front you — going up, making tackles, slowing their ball down.”
After facing Cardiff, they take on Edinburgh on October 7, before returning to South Africa to face Ulster on October 15 at Ellis Park.
Fourie emphasised that delivering overseas and capitalising on home-ground advantage are equally important.
“We know when we tour, we need to start well. Last year, we were probably out by two games, and if we won them, we could have been in a quarter-final.
“So, we need to take our chances overseas, and we need to have a solid start when we get back home as well.”
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