Van Rooyen rues Lions’ lost intensity after Benetton end winning streak in Challenge Cup opener

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted a dip in intensity proved costly in their  26-18 defeat against Benetton in the opening round of the Challenge Cup at Ellis Parks on Saturday afternoon.

The visitors from Treviso, in Italy, secured a second win in row over the side from Johannesburg, ending a run of three consecutive wins that had sparked hopes of a revival in fortunes.

“We’re disappointed with what I refer to it as the energy, but some of it is energy, some of it is stopping momentum, some of it is generating momentum,” Van Rooyen said in his post-match media conference.

“We were a lot sharper last week, and we were a lot sharper the week before that.”

The Lions were coming off a 43-33 mauling of the Bulls at Loftus last weekend in the URC, which was preceded by wins over Ulster and the Scarlets in the same competition. But Benetton proved to have the beating of the Joburg side for the second time in a couple of months. 

“Benetton posed a different threat, and I think their first seven to eight defenders are probably the best in the competition in terms of stopping momentum and forcing you to be exceptional to get quick ball, so well done to them,” coach Cash said. 

“We had plans around that, but didn’t really manage to get that going enough for us to really threaten them. 

“We also then reverted to the kicking game a little bit where initially I don’t think we were too effective  But as the game went on we managed to get some ball back there, and we lost about four or five set-pieces in a row and it just swung the momentum back to them.”

The coach also admitted the yellow card for winger Kelly Mpeku had allowed the visitors to build up a head of steam late in the contest. 

“I think we did really well to go in 10-8 at half-time – I think they dominated the first 20 to 30 minutes. And then I though we were a lot better the first 20 minutes after half-time, threatening a lot more, stopping momentum a lot more, creating a lot more opportunities,” Van Rooyen said.

“We then lost four or five set pieces in a row: lineouts in the attacking zone and you can’t build pressure there, and then two scrum penalties for them to curate the easy exit and put the pressure back onto us. With that and too many errors, you just seem to be running out of petrol and hence, with the yellow card, the last five six or seven minutes looked like that.

"We’re obviously not happy with that and at home you want to put on a much better performance,” he concluded.