Lions respond to attack criticism, set points goal to win series

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9.45am, 06 Aug 2021

Lions coach Gregor Townsend reacted to criticism of his test team’s power level so far in their series against the Springboks and also suggested the points goal which must be met in Cape Town on Saturday if the tour must be successfully concluded by Warren. On the Gatland side.

The Lions won the opener 22-17 but were blown away in last weekend’s second rematch, losing 9-27 in fear that after scoring just one try against the three South Africans until now in the series, they don’t have the plan to damage the Springboks enough.

In 15 games since the start of 2019, South Africa has conceded just a dozen tries while in eleven visits to the Springboks 22 last weekend, the Lions came away with a meager six points on two shots on goal. These are stats that should worry even the most optimistic Lions fans, but Townsend is confident things will finally kick in in this weekend’s touring finale.

Latest RugbyPass Offload Anticipates Lions Series Decision Maker

“We have to create more, for sure,” admitted Townsend, who the Lions had high hopes for given Scotland’s Six Nations wins over England and France earlier this year which helped to seal his nomination in April as one of the Gatland players. the most important assistant coaches.

“If you create opportunities, whether it’s through mistakes in the defense that can get your line breaks and lead to tries, it gives you more chances to win the game, but you can create more just by pressure. , tiring the opposition, getting penalties, and in those tight test matches, that might be enough to win the game.

“… they haven’t produced an alternative, which I think will be an accusation against this coaching staff when this whole series is over.” # LionsTour2021 #LionsRugby #RSAvBIL https://t.co/CcPdjS3BqV

– RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 5, 2021

“We did it well in the first test, especially in the second half of that first test, and we were building that kind of performance in the first half of the second test, but we didn’t do it for 80 minutes. We know we need to control the game more by moving South Africa, draining it of its energy whenever we can. It would certainly be an area for improvement. “

In order to help this ambition to drain South African energy, the Lions spoke to the referees ahead of the series decider to try to ensure there was no repeat of the weekend’s schedule issues. last end. According to Opta, the ball’s playing time for the second opening half of the Test was only 16 minutes and 28 seconds, a figure reduced to 14 minutes and one second in the second half.

The halves also took an hour, two minutes and 30 seconds and 53 minutes and 26 seconds respectively, leaving an hour, 25 minutes and 30 seconds of downtime occupied by TMO reviews, water breaks, stud changes and everything else with the traditional break for intermission.

“We made the point that we don’t want unnecessary stops,” said Townsend, Lions assistant. “You keep the tempo and you keep the pace of the game going through your own precision, through your own decision making, but when the game stops, whether it’s for a scrum, a lineout, you want it to restart.” as quickly as possible. Everyone watching at home is doing it so I would like to think and hope it will be a shorter game this weekend than last weekend.

“There was a difference between the first and the second half,” he added of the Lions’ lack of power. “In the first half, we had these opportunities. If we had had this try which ended up being refused just before half-time, it would have been a reflection of the pressure we had put on the opposition. There was another one in the first half where if we kept the ball we got a penalty advantage and a few rucks later the ball was killed and we went back to the original penalty.

“We know you won’t have a lot of opportunities in these test matches, so doing everything you can to get seven points would make a huge difference. In the second half we just couldn’t take possession, we didn’t. We weren’t precise enough with possession and South Africa dominated in a few areas which made it very difficult for us to score those points.

“It’s a test match and you play against the world champions, I don’t think we used the kind of phrase to blow them up,” he continued when asked about defensive ability. of South Africa to shut down teams. “For me personally and I hope the team feels it too, we have the ability to score tries, the ability to put the South African defense under pressure which can open up opportunities later in games or can lead to three points, six points.

“I think to win a test match against a quality opposition you need to score 20 points or more to have more control over the outcome. We have to do it through all aspects, whether it’s the set piece, our defense which earns us penalties and the ball, but especially attacking, creating and completing opportunities.

After making six changes to their starting XV, four in the baseline, the Lions will start with the same No.10 to No.15 full-backs that opened Japan at the start of the pre-round match in Edinburgh in late June. “It’s probably more of a coincidence (than the design),” Townsend said.

“The guys played really well that day against Japan. The players have played really well on tour and we know there are a few players in that backline, two or three who have been waiting for the opportunity to play in the test match, to start a test match, and they have it. have saturday. We had a lot of competition for places in our whole squad and we think it’s the right 15, the right 23 to win a game and win a series of tests.

The dispute over the non-neutral Lions series TMO Jonker did not deter the Rugby Championship from taking non-neutral nominations to a new level in the Rugby Championship #NZLvAUS #RSAvBIL #LionsRugbyhttps: //t.co/w9poWCsqrT

– RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 6, 2021

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