Johannesburg - Lions coach Swys de Bruin praised his side after they returned to winning ways in style with a 52-31 demolition job of the Stormers on Saturday and believes the team is back on track.
De Bruin said the pieces of the puzzle that had evaded his team in the previous month were all there as they managed to score three tries in the opening 10 minutes and force the Stormers to play catch-up throughout, according to supersport.com website.
De Bruin was complimentary of young defence coach Joey Mongalo, who engineered the victory as the Stormers had the majority of ball but could find little penetration in their play.
“I can really answer you,” De Bruin said when asked where this side was the last month.
“They have been there, we’ve scored 43 tries and we are averaging more than five a game. I just want to complement our defence coach for the step-up he made. The defence was unreal today. Well done to Joey, and Sous (Franco Mostert) will tell you the amount of work he puts in and he has a great future ahead of him as a defence coach, just the amount of clever things he put in this week.
“I must say the Bulls at Loftus was very satisfying. I don’t want to get carried away. It’s a long competition and we must enjoy this. But you must focus straight away again.”
The Lions are set for a bye week with several players attending Rassie Erasmus’ alignment camps this week before they head over next week on tour for four tough matches in Australasia.
“We are looking forward to the tour. These guys - I love them - they are really great. They have character and they are naughty on tour in a good way. They really enjoy touring. We are all looking forward to that. It’s one of those things,” he smiled.
And De Bruin believes the win couldn’t have come at a better time for his side.
“It was at the right time, we started well with three wins, then lose, win, lose. So it was really at the right time. Especially now, because some of these guys are going - with the Stormers - to Rassie’s Springbok camp so the timing for our team is really good. And we only fly out next Tuesday, so the timing is very good.
“It was an all-round performance, this is still a very strong Province (Stormers) side - the way those guys - Pieter-Steph (du Toit) played. It was a wonderful battle between him and Sous (Franco Mostert) all night. I love it when you see those real South African derbies where the guys get stuck into each other.”
The Lions now have a 11 point lead over the Sharks in the South African conference and are unbeaten in 20 local derbies over the past three years.