The Blue Bulls scored another win over their Joburg based counterparts when they ventured up the Jukskei. The Lions seemingly going from bad to worse this season were outmuscled up front, whilst their backline failed to subdue the Bulls attack, lead by the ever green Morne Steyn at flyhalf. The Lions ultimately went down 21 - 13 to the Bulls.
Coming into the game, the Lions had conceded 10 tries in two games, the pain was only piled on as the Bulls managed to add a further 3. The Lions defence coach, Jacques Fourie showed his concern during the build up, as he questioned his sides heart on defence. A defensive guru in his playing days, the new coach will be scratching his head for answers again this week.
"I always told people that defence isn't rocket science. If a guy is in front of you, you either have to stop him or he's going to run all over you. There are things you can coach and there are things we've been tweaking, but you can't coach heart."
The Lions were in touch throughout the first half thanks to two penalties, before the Bulls scored a try just on the stroke of half time to put a bit of distance between the sides. Coming out from the sheds, the Bulls forwards set about establishing their dominance, allowing Kurt-Lee Arendse to dot down in the 48th minute.
The Lions have to find a way to play for 80 minutes as a unit. In the 38th minute there was one point in it, ten minutes later the Lions were 21 - 6 down. There are a number of senior players and ex-Boks at the Lions who now need to step up and lead from the front if they are too see their franchise's fortunes change, Jaco Kriel can't do it alone. A 72nd minute consolation try from Ruben Schoeman won't be enough to quell the concerns of their supporters.
The Lions will now turn their focus to their home clash with the Stormers next weekend in the final weekend of SA derbies in the URC. They will need to turn things around fast if they hope to carry any momentum forward into the games against their Northern rivals or risk falling to the bottom of the log all together in what would amount to a massive decline at the franchise, after recent successes in Super Rugby.
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