Bok legend Jaque Fourie wants Lions to keep their players as URC ambitions flounder

The sands of time have just about run out for the Lions in the United Rugby Championship’s ‘Race to Eight’, and defence coach Jaque Fourie is concerned that the team are leaking star players such as Edwill van der Merwe, who will join the Sharks next season.

The Johannesburg side host the Scarlets at Ellis Park on Sunday (3pm kick-off), and finish their URC league campaign the following week with a home fixture against the Ospreys.

The Lions need the maximum 10 points from these last two games to have a mathematical chance of making the playoffs, but they are hanging on to a slender straw.

The highest points tally the Lions can hope for on the final log is 45, and no side has ever qualified for the URC playoffs with that tally.

Fourie, a Springbok legend as a feisty outside centre, is worried about his team going forward.

The latest Lions export to the Sharks is flying winger Van der Merwe, and Fourie is not happy that the talented back has chosen not to stay in Johannesburg.

This has also been the case with other Durban-bound Lions stars in brothers Vincent and Emmanuel Tshituka, flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse and prop Ruan Dreyer.

“We have to try to keep our talent here and ensure that all the players in the group improve,” Fourie said ahead of Sunday’s match.

“It was difficult to lose experienced senior men such as Willem Alberts and Jaco Kriel in the past few seasons, and now Edwill.

“The Lions must retain the right group of players for the next few seasons, to some extent, as happened in 2013,” said Fourie.

The Bok great is referring to the era when the Lions built a brilliant team under coaches Johan Ackerman and Swys de Bruin and won their way to three Super Rugby finals. This was between 2016 and 2018.

“There are a few young players like flank Renzo du Plessis, who have come to the fore this season. Hopefully we can produce a few more Springboks in the next two, three seasons, but we must keep them,” Fourie told Netwerk24.

The Lions are struggling in 13th position on the log, and while the game is surely up in terms of the playoffs, Fourie says the team must soldier on.

“There were some really good performances, and then games that we didn’t expect to lose,” he said.

“There were three or four games that we should have won. Then our position on the points table would have looked much better.

“We would love to have been in a position at this stage of the season where we have a good chance of qualifying. Instead, we just have to win and hope.”