Durban - The altitude factor is real and definitely not imagined, and overseas teams in the United Rugby Championship are going to have to find a way to combat it when visiting the Highveld.
That is the view of Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen and his captain, Burger Odendaal, who were commenting after their team had put the Ospreys to the sword at Emirates Airline Park on Friday night.
The Lions ran in seven superb tries in their 45-15 victory as the Welshmen wilted, especially in the second half when they were visibly exhausted.
“We have seen it in our games and in those of the Bulls against touring teams. Altitude plays a role and we knew if we moved the Ospreys around we would get opportunities,” Van Rooyen said.
Odendaal concurred with his coach: “There is a major difference between playing in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere,” the Man of the Match said. “They were lucky it was not 3pm with the sun burning...
“But on the Highveld, the guys overseas are going to struggle to adapt. If you ask the local guys from Cape Town and Durban, the altitude does play a role. Overseas teams will learn from this, I don’t know how they will adapt to it in the future — it is a learning curve for them.”
The 28-year-old Odendaal had a sensational game, often breaking the Ospreys defence line and three times set up teammates for tries. The Lions will be rueing the fact that he has signed for Wasps in England, where he will link up with his former coach at the Bulls, John Mitchell.
“That was probably was my best game in a Lions jersey,” Odendaal admitted. “But I won’t linger on it for too long. There is an old saying that you are only as good as your last game and next week we will have Edinburgh, who will have all their internationals back. I told the guys to enjoy the win on Saturday and Sunday and then on Monday we start again from zero.”
Odnedaal agreed with his coach that the game plan of attacking the wide channels worked a treat.
“Before the game, Wandile (Simelani) and challenged ourselves as the centre pairing to see how many times we could set up our wings for one-on-ones against their opposite number. It really worked for us because there was more and more space outside.”
The Lions have now won three games in a row and Odendaal says the key to turning the corner after a very tough passage in the competition was the unknown factor posed by the touring teams.
“The SA derbies were hard to get up for but the international teams coming here has been good for us,” he said. “Because we didn’t know who was going to be in the touring teams (many players were on duty in the Six Nations) we had no choice but to focus more on ourselves. That made a massive difference — we have become much more accurate in the small details and have become more polished.”
IOL Sport