Lyon’s Alexandre Tchaptchet is tackled by the Lions Richard Kriel and Quan Horn in their Challenge Cup match at Ellis Park on Saturday. Picture: Daniel Hlongwane/Gallo Images Qualifying for the Challenge Cup playoffs is now firmly in the Lions own hands, thanks to their hard fought bonus point win over Lyon at Ellis Park over the past weekend. A home loss against Benetton, and a last gasp away defeat against Newcastle Red Bulls had left the Lions hopes of progressing to the competitions round of 16 hanging by a thread, buttheir solid winover the French visitors has put them back in the driving seat.
With the top four teams in each pool progressing to the knockouts,the Lionsare currently fourth, level on six points with third placed Perpignan, who they face in France on Saturday, and a win over them will secure their spot. However a home playoff is out of their hands, thanks to pool leaders Benetton and second placed Newcastle being out of reach, and to finish as one of the two best placed third placed teams they would need other results to go their way as well. Even ifthe Lionslose to Perpignan they could still sneak into the Challenge Cup knockouts, as Dragons, who trail them by two points, and Lyon, who trail them by four, face Newcastle and Benetton respectively in their final pool games and both could lose.
It will be interesting to see what team the Lions takes over to France, as before the competition kicked off in December, coach Ivan van Rooyen said that they would be sending heavily rotated teams to their away matches. They did send a weakened team to face Newcastle in England, but had a tough United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter against the Stormers in Cape Town a week later to also prepare for. This time however after the Perpignan match, they head to Wales to face Ospreys in the URC, so they might back a stronger squad for their two game overseas tour.
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Following that they host the Bulls at Ellis Park in what should be a blockbuster home derby at the end of the month. With a two week break between the Bulls game, and the Lions next URC match against the Sharks at home, they may go all out over the next three matches before giving their side a bit of a break. On the URC front the Lions will know how important winning their home games will be, and after the Ospreys match they will play seven in a row at Ellis Park, including three straight home derbies, before taking on four teams from the UK.
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