Lions and Sharks both ‘desperate’ to win derby at Ellis Park

Two desperate teams are set to battle it out for United Rugby Championship (URC) derby glory when the Lions and Sharks collide at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.

Plenty is at stake for both teams, who currently sit outside the URC top eight, with the Sharks ninth and Lions 10^th, both locked on 24 points, and both need a win to get them firmly into the playoff mix.

The Lions triumphed over the Sharks with a try after the fulltime hooter in their first derby clash in Durban last month, so the visitors will be gunning for revenge, while the home side will be looking to clinch a rare double over their URC rivals.

It is also set to be a physical encounter, as all South African derbies are, and the team that comes out on top in that aspect will have a great chance of finishing on the right side of the result.

“When it’s a South Africa derby we know the first box you have to tick is physicality. We know they are going to be desperate to rectify their last performance (against the Lions),” said Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher on Tuesday.

“But we are also desperate. The Bulls performance wasn’t good enough from our side and we want to make sure that we perform better this weekend and execute our plans.”

Differing form

The Sharks head into the game in strong form after two fantastic wins over the high flying Stormers in their last two matches, while the Lions have not won their last three, after two draws and a heavy home defeat against the Bulls, which they will want to bounce back from.

Both teams have had a few weeks off, so will be refreshed from the break, and the Lions big focus going into the game is on better execution.

“Looking back on the Bulls game it wasn’t our best performance, so we can’t actually wait for Saturday (to put things right). We want to rectify things. Just our execution on that day wasn’t good enough and we want to rectify that,” said Loubscher.

“The first week we took it off. Since being back the whole focus has been on us. Getting our systems and execution right, there has been a lot of focus on that. We obviously worked a bit on our conditioning, but we are happy with how the past week of prep has gone.”

The timing of the break also came at the perfect time for the Lions, after a tough tour and big derby, which has given them some valuable time off.

“The timing of the break was perfect for us. We felt that after the tour (to Europe), and a big Bulls game straight after that, we needed a bit of a rest. Everyone is back and available, except for a few players still on the long term injury list,” said Loubscher.

“But I think in general we are happy going into this game. Obviously the big thing is making sure we get our preparation right, and that is the big focus for us, to get our things right.”