Cash Van Rooyen delighted with Lions' victory over Sharks, JP Pietersen admits 'poor' showing

The Lions confirmed they are the Sharks’ nemesis side when they won their fifth United Rugby Championship match in their last six encounters with the Durbanites on Saturday afternoon at Ellis Park.

 It was a result that had coach Ivan van Rooyen and captain Francke Horn delighted.

“It was not the perfect performance, but I am very proud of this rebound after a very poor performance against the Bulls,” coach van Rooyen said of the 34-22 win.

“To walk away from this SA Derby with five points is awesome. We wanted a response, and we got it. Are we the Sharks’ bogey team? No, it is not about that. It is about trying to win every game we play, and how it lines up is irrelevant.

Captain Horn said, “We are a proud team in the change room right now. Our performance against the Bulls was not up to our standard. It is not what we stand for. We want to be a team that has hunger and energy and delivers a good brand of rugby. Today we delivered that.

Sharks coach JP Pietersen was an unhappy customer.

“It was a poor performance.  It was one of those games where we would have one positive and then two negatives. We were our own worst enemies,” he said.

“We got a yellow card (to scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse for a silly off-the-ball indiscretion), and they scored two tries, but did that cost us the game? There were several other areas where we were not up to scratch.”

Pietersen said a silver lining to the cloud of defeat was the performance of Jurenzo “The Boogie Man” Julius.

“Jurenzo was very good today. He showed what he could do when I moved him to inside centre (from No 13) to get him closer to the action," he said of the Junior Springbok.

“He backed himself and had a full go. I was very happy with his performance in a new position.

“Today, we missed the leadership of guys like Andre Esterhuizen and Siya Kolisi. They are the top Springboks. But we will get better.”