Emirates Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen said the win over the DHL Stormers will boost their confidence going into a three-match South African derby series.
The coming weekend the Lions travel to Pretoria followed by home and away matches against the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
“It’s a big month, isn’t it? We know we want to perform more consistently against the SA teams, we play them twice in the URC and if you can win your home games, it can make something like a 16-, 17-point difference just on the general arc.”
"We had some good attacking opportunities in the second part of the first half and used it. The Stormers, the way they selected, wanted to open up the game. But our defensive effort was huge."
"We knew because we didn’t play last week and the Stormers played a tough game that we needed to put an emphasis on a good start."
Van Rooyen said the Lions managed things a lot better against the Stormers than in their 22-35 loss against the Bulls two weeks ago.
"I want to compliment the whole system over the last two weeks, I think there was a massive drive to get the energy and how we want to play."
"It might feel small, but we haven’t beaten the Stormers in a long time, so that makes it worthwhile. Hopefully, it brings the belief, but there are still a lot of things that we can look at, but I think we looked a lot more comfortable under chaos, which against the Bulls we didn’t."
"Today was important for us, it’s important for us to prep well for the Bulls, and then it’ll be interesting playing against a team twice in a row, it’s always a different dynamic."
“It’s almost a different dynamic. I am really happy with the win, but it’s tough physical games ahead.”