Horn sharp as Lions aim to speed things up against Cardiff

BE in their faces, produce better set-piece ball for the backs and control the tempo of the game. Those are the three key areas Barend Pieterse feels the Lions must get right to knock over Cardiff at Ellis Park on Saturday (6.15pm kick-off).

The Johannesburg side’s URC play-off hopes are up in the air following their 33-13 defeat to Munster a few weeks ago, and they are now in must-win mode to have any chance of making the top eight and qualifying for next season’s Champions Cup.

Coach Ivan van Rooyen’s team are 11th on the URC log with 39 points, while eighth-placed Benetton, who take on the Sharks in Durban on Saturday, are on 44.

So, while forwards coach Pieterse said yesterday that “the top-eight dream is still alive for us”, he knows that they can’t afford to slip up once more, as they did in going down to Munster on April 27.

You would expect the Lions to stand up and topple Cardiff, who last won a match on Boxing Day last year and have lost nine in a row across all competitions since, but the men from the Welsh capital won’t surrender meekly as their players are vying for Test berths against the Springboks in London on June 22.

The Lions battled to deal with the gamesmanship of Munster, and need to set the tone early on to get the better of Cardiff.

Pieterse said they are set to be bolstered by Quan Horn, who has recovered from his shoulder injury, so the star fullback should be able to provide much-needed direction at fullback.

“It’s something we speak about every day as a coaching staff. I mentioned it before the Leinster game as well – we are up and down,” Pieterse said.

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“That’s been our season this whole season, from game one: good game, bad game. That’s something we need to look at ourselves, how we can improve that.

“That is something that needed improvement yesterday already, because if we want to be successful as a union and play in the Champions Cup, then that’s something we need to be better at.

“Unfortunately, where we slacked a little bit (against Munster) is when we had the ball we also slowed it down.

“That is something we can be better at. When we are in charge of the game, if it’s our line-out, we must try and speed it up. If Cardiff are clever, they will try to copy and paste a lot of the things that Munster did.

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“We have to be better in the execution of our set-piece. We have to be in their faces and not let them run onto us. On defence, we have to get off the line, set quickly.

“We have to give the backs solid enough ball from our scrums and line-outs, and when we are close to the tryline, we have to get away with points.”