Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen reflects on errors that allowed Scarlets to boss tempo

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted that costly errors from them allowed Scarlets to dictate the tempo of the United Rugby Championship game that they lost 32-19 at home on Sunday afternoon.

"I just think they were more accurate than us. When we started, we threw some nice punches early but we didn't get the reward early," coach "Cash" said in his post-match media briefing at Ellis Park.

"We let them slip in an easy try. We fought back. Again, there were too many errors. Again, an easy try for them, so I don't think it's a matter of desperation or not caring. It's definitely not that. To me there were too many individual errors.

"They probably won the breakdown battle, which allowed them to either get a penalty or a set piece, and then they can rest. Because of our errors, they dictated the tempo of the game."

Skipper Jaco Visagie also felt that the Lions made too many individual errors against the Welsh visitors, who climbed to sixth in the table with the bonus-point win. 

"I didn't, for one second, feel the guys weren't invested, Just too many individual errors. It wasn't a lack of commitment," he insisted.

The home side scored three tries to the four for the visitors.

Scarlets won the battle at the breakdown, turning over the ball or winning penalties.

This was no surprise to Van Rooyen, who  said managing the breakdown was one of the focal points for the Joburg side.

"We know that they are  good there. I think they showed tonight why they beat Leinster comprehensively. They are a good team. They've got a big forward pack. They've good really good skill and pace outside wide. They're a good, balanced team," he said.

"I'm probably disappointed because once or twice it felt like we stopped playing after making an error and that allowed them to get big momentum and put us under pressure again."

The coach admitted the error-strewn performance, as well as the lack of consistency in execution, was a tale of their season.

"It feels like it. Showing on video exactly what picture is coming, then training on it and then still conceding the first try is an individual error. When we get that right, like last week against Connacht, it's a totally different picture. Or when we get it right for patches in the game, we're really effective and we look really good, then in the next set, not that effective.

"It's obviously something that we have to get better at, because when we get it right and when when we get it right consistently, it's actually really exciting."

The loss of two of their three homes games at the tail end of the regular season that held so much promise of a play-off berth was particular disappointing for the Lions mentor.

"We felt that we had four home games and if we could capitalise on that, there's a real opportunity to end anything from sixth to eighth. To lose two out of the three currently, obviously that is frustrating."

He said missing out on play-offs was "a huge disappointment".

"We set our goals, we set our targets. I think we started off well enough. Yes, it's always tough in January, February, March when you're bouncing back and forth between Europe and here when it's cold and it's warm, but even then we felt we were there to put ourselves in a position to get there (the play-offs)," Van Rooyen said.

"I told the referee, if we scored the fourth try last week we were in the hunt to come seventh or eighth, that's how small the margins are. That's why it's such a great competition.

"We felt we weren't consistently good enough to be there yet. There were big learnings for us as a group, as individuals.

"I don't like to say it but we are young currently, because of a couple of the senior guys that are injured. So it is a challenge which speaks to consistency, but it is important for us to be much better."

The 13th-placed Lions will round off their season with Saturday's home clash against the Ospreys.