The Lions will have the United Rugby Championship (URC) South African Shield in their sights when they host the Stormers in their last derby of the season on Saturday.<\/p>\n
They put themselves right back in the mix for the trophy by claiming a 34-22 bonus-point victory over the Sharks in last Saturday\u2019s rearranged fixture in Johannesburg. That has taken them within a point of the table-topping Sharks as the battle for the domestic Shield reaches a crescendo.<\/p>\n
If the Lions<\/a> can beat the Stormers<\/a> at Ellis Park on Saturday, the silverware would then be theirs if the Sharks lose to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n Exciting times<\/p>\n So these are exciting times for Ivan van Rooyen\u2019s team. They have come so close to trophy triumphs in recent times, losing successive Currie Cup finals to last-gasp kicks. Could this now be their time?<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be honest, we haven\u2019t won a lot of silverware in the last three or four years,\u201d said head coach Van Rooyen. \u201cSo it\u2019s really nice for us to have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n But he knows it won\u2019t be easy against a Stormers side who will be smarting from back-to-back defeats against the Sharks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t get the wins there, after playing the Sharks twice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how proud they are, we know the quality they have. If you are not going to be 110 per cent ready for the Stormers, then they can absolutely tear you apart. So we know that we need to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n Lions v Sharks: Five takeaways as Springbok\u2019s \u2018masterclass\u2019 inspires season double while JP Pietersen\u2019s \u2018new boss bounce dwindles\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Lions player ratings v Sharks: \u2018Classy effort\u2019 from Springboks scrum-half and back-rower who \u2018led his team expertly in the carry\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Giving his thoughts on this weekend\u2019s clash, skipper Francke Horn said: \u201cIt\u2019s a derby, it\u2019s a Shield on the line. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s one player that won\u2019t be excited. But with that excitement must come accuracy. We must be clinical and play in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions\u2019 four-try win over the Sharks saw them bounce back from a thumping 52-17 defeat at home to the Bulls in their previous league outing three weeks ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all proud men in the changing rooms and the performance we gave against the Bulls wasn\u2019t up to our standard,\u201d admitted number eight Horn. \u201cIt was quite tough to take. That\u2019s not what we want to stand for. We want to stand for a team that has energy, that has hunger and plays a good brand of rugby.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we showed that against the Sharks. There was a lot more maturity and calmness among the guys. We were playing rugby in the right areas of the field. It was an area of growth for us in terms of not getting tunnel vision 30 minutes in and realising there was another 50 minutes left. I was proud of how the boys reacted on that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stayed calm and made plans. As soon as they got points, we got points immediately back.\u201d<\/p>\n Impressive response<\/p>\n Van Rooyen was equally delighted with the response from his players as they secured a victory which has taken them up to seventh in the overall URC<\/a> table.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were clearly bitterly disappointed after the Bulls performance,\u201d he admitted. \u201cWe perceived like we were getting hammered from the beginning of that game. So it was a good response from us against the Sharks. There were some good solutions. To walk away with five points, I was really proud and really happy. I feel mentally we did grow a little bit these past few weeks.<\/p>\n