Van Rooyen Hails Lions’ Maturity As Patience Pays Off in URC Season
Emirates Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen believes the tough season his team endured last term is now paying dividends, with his players showing increased maturity this season.
The Lions were among the poorest-performing South African teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) last season, a campaign that saw them fail to qualify for Europe’s premier club competition, the Investec Champions Cup.
As a result, pressure mounted on van Rooyen from management to make changes, but the Lions hierarchy opted to retain him ahead of the current season.
This decision stood in contrast to their neighbours, the Vodacom Blue Bulls, who parted ways with former Springbok coach Jake White despite his side reaching the URC final last term.
The Lions’ patience is now bearing fruit. The Johannesburg-based side currently sit seventh on the URC standings with 21 points after eight matches, firmly in the playoff mix.
Over the weekend, the Lions claimed their fourth URC victory of the season with an impressive win over the Springbok-laden Hollywoodbets Sharks at Kings Park Stadium on Saturday.
The result was even more remarkable given that the Lions were forced to play 30 minutes with a man down after Ruan Venter was sin-binned before his yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red card.
“We sat down at the beginning and said we are young, but not necessarily inexperienced,” van Rooyen explained.
“Guys like Ruan Venter and Quan Horn are only 24 or 25, but they already have 60 or 70 URC caps.
“I think at the moment we’re showing more maturity. We always believed internally that we had good characters and fighters, but the maturity and decision-making in the heat of battle have definitely improved.”
Despite their struggles last season, the Lions appear to relish playing against the Sharks in Durban.
Saturday’s victory marked the Johannesburg side’s third consecutive win over the Sharks at Kings Park Stadium across successive URC seasons.
“We don’t dwell on how many years or how many times we’ve won here,” said van Rooyen, affectionately known as Cash.
“We take it game by game and stay in the moment. It does show that we’re becoming more competitive, and we’ll take confidence from that, but we won’t get sidetracked.”
