The Lions head to Edinburgh this week to face a crew #BIG on revenge and so they have good motive to be troubled.
The United Rugby Championship is one two-week hiatus – with the main target switching to Europe, for the final 16 and quarterfinals of the Champions Cup and Problem Cup.
Edinburgh, at present seventh within the URC and having topped Pool Three within the Problem Cup, has a rating to settle with the Lions.
The boys from the Scottish capital had been on the unsuitable finish of a Lions drubbing at Ellis Park again in October.
The Lions, throughout a four-match unbeaten begin to the season earlier than the inevitable meltdown, put 50 factors previous the guests to Ellis Park.
They beat Ulster 35–22, Edinburgh 55–21 (each in Johannesburg), adopted by away wins in opposition to the basement-dwelling Dragons (23-19) and Italian strugglers Zebre (10-9).
It noticed the Lions sitting fairly at second place within the standings.
(Proceed beneath …)
It proved to be a false daybreak earlier than the now archetypal slide down the rankings – to 14th place after a 42-0 whitewash by Glasgow Warriors this previous weekend.
In what was arguably the Johannesburg crew’s most appalling efficiency of the season, the stats confirmed the fact of the quandaries in The Den.
Poor defence, a surprising lack of self-discipline and an alarming variety of turnovers are all options within the eight losses since that promising begin.
They’ve made an unbelievable 2264 tackles and missed a surprising 310 – for a sort out success charge of simply 77 %.
One other apropos stat entails turnovers.
Flank JC Pretorius tops the checklist of people on the ‘turnovers gained’ – with the Lions having secured 113 as a crew, the highest crew within the URC.
Nevertheless, the rider is that they conceded virtually double that – 218.
The most important culprits are all key gamers – Morné van den Berg (18 turnovers conceded), Quan Horn, Marius Louw (each 14) and Richard Kriel (13).
Within the demoralising 0-42 loss to Glasgow Warriors, the turnover depend additionally went properly into double digits – Ruan Venter (4), JC Pretorius (two), Henco Venter (two) and Quan Horn (all two) had been the most important culprits.
The Lions’ disciplinary stats are equally alarming.
9 yellow playing cards and one purple card are accompanied by 127 penalties. The scrums, supposedly their power, have produced 27 offences.
Essentially the most penalised Lions gamers are Marius Louw and Asenathi Ntlabakanye (each 9 penalties), adopted by Jc Pretorius (eight).
It signifies that there’s a severe disconnect between the gamers and training employees – a crew that’s now not enjoying for one another.
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