It looked nervy but we were calm, says Horn after Lions open URC account against Scarlets

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen and captain Francke Horn looked like men reprieved from the gallows as they faced the media following their team’s 29-18 victory over the Scarlets at Ellis Park on Saturday.

It was a tedious encounter, with both sides showing why they are anchored near the bottom of the United Rugby Championship table, but it was the Lions who banked a bonus-point win to lift themselves off the foot of the standings.

“The first thing I want to say is that we are relieved,” Horn admitted. “We have worked hard over the last four weeks, but the results have not shown it, so we are grateful for the win.”

The Lions had lost all three of their recent overseas matches, and the coaching staff have been under mounting pressure. Late in the match, it looked as though the hosts might implode again, but they held their nerve to close out the game comfortably on the scoreboard.

“It seemed a bit nervy in the closing stages, but the guys were actually calm,” Horn said. “We stuck to the plan, stuck to the basics, and we banked the five points. There’s still a lot to fix, but we’ve moved in the right direction, and this win will give us confidence going forward.”

Van Rooyen felt the margin of victory could have been greater had his team been more clinical at the attacking breakdown.

“At stages, we managed to build some nice momentum against an aggressive rush defence,” he explained. “But the attacking breakdown let us down a bit, and we didn’t capitalise on the pictures we created.

“We’re very happy with the five points. Our game management at times was really good. The big thing is that we created a lot more opportunities to score, but errors at the breakdown cost us.”