Van Rooyen praises Lions’ composure after seeing red in dramatic win over Sharks

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen commended his team for the way they dealt with the adversity of losing forward Ruan Venter to a yellow card that was later upgraded to red in the gripping one-point victory against the Sharks at Kings Park on Saturday afternoon.  

Venter was sin-binned for head contact in a tackle on Sharks fullback Aphelele Fassi late in the first half of their United Rugby Championship clash, and the yellow was later upgraded to red. While similar setbacks may have seen the Lions buckle under the pressure previously, they held their nerve at the Shark Tank this time to snatch the 23-22 win after the hooter. 

“I don’t think it (the head contact) was intentional, I think it was a little bit of timing out. But I also really felt in the 20 minutes we showed a bit of composure, we showed a bit of growth there,” Van Rooyen said at the post-match media briefing. 

“Historically, we tend to go into our shell a little bit in adversity, where I really felt today (Saturday) the leaders really stepped up, (with) good solutions, good plans.

Obviously, it helps when there’s a bit of a half-time break in-between because you can make plans and you can get together. But just really proud of the effort, especially in the 20 minutes with the red card.”

Skipper Francke Horn was also proud of the huge effort it took to stay in the match while a man down, with the Sharks sensing blood having roared back into the contest after a slow start. 

“We said whatever happens, we just need to deal with it and still keep playing our game, get in half-time and get plans. As forwards we scrummed with seven, we stopped mauls with five versus seven, so there was a really big effort,” said the Lions No 8, who led from the front, scoring one of their three tries.

“Obviously it was a really big effort to get width on the field, so we knew if we can just for that 20 minutes, keep the guys out and assert our game plan onto them, getting back to 15 men we’ll get our chances.

"We squandered two opportunities with five-metre lineouts, also held one of theirs up, and when we really needed it in the last minute, the guys came through. So there was always that belief that we could win, and credit to the guys for sticking in there and playing the whole 80 minutes.” 

The Lions are in seventh place on the URC log table after the victory, with the Sharks still languishing in 14th after JP Pietersen’s first defeat as head coach.