The Lions beat the Stormers in their last Vodacom United Rugby Championship match, but that was seven weeks ago and South Africa’s top team want to pick up where they left off against the Sharks.

The Lions go into Saturday’s match at Ellis Park after a long break following a superb 37-19 defeat of the Stormers, moving them to 11th place in the overall standings and first in the race for the South African Shield.

“In a perfect world, we would’ve loved to have just a game or two straight after the Stormers win,” Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher said on Tuesday.

“We felt, just the way we played against the Stormers, we were happy with our performance, happy with the momentum. Ideally, another game or two would have been perfect for us.”

Loubscher says the Lions’ preparations have gone well, but is anticipating a tough test from a Springbok-filled Sharks team.

“The last three weeks went well, but they were tough, too. There’s an excitement and buzz. We’re just excited to play again.

“The set piece has been a priority. We’ve been happy with our defence. We were particularly happy with the four tries we scored in our previous game,” said Loubscher.

“In general, we just want to get back to our fitness levels and want to make sure our detail on attack is decent. We worked quite hard on that.

“Our kicking game in general has been a priority, too, because we want to play the game in the right areas. The Sharks will come with a helluva kicking game and we need to make sure that we’re able to deal with that tactic.”

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