Lions assistant coach Wessel Roux has admitted that the team is feeling the pressure from their poor start to 2022 in the Currie Cup and Vodacom United Rugby Championship, but still believe they can turn things around.

The Lions have not won a single game in either the Currie Cup or the Vodacom United Rugby Championship so far this year. Their last win came in December when they claimed a superb upset victory over the Stormers in Cape Town.

Their poor run of results has rooted them to 14th place in the URC, nine points off the 10th-placed Vodacom Bulls, while they are also currently languishing at the bottom of the Currie Cup table.

Roux, who serves as an assistant coach to the Currie Cup team, said that while the pressure is on the Lions, they still feel they have enough to turn results around.

“I think it’s impossible to have endured eight losses and not feel its effect,” Roux, who coaches the Lions forwards, told Sport24 ahead of Saturday’s meeting with the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

“We’re in a professional business where the only currency is winning. We understand that and we also realise that we can’t keep using the youthfulness of our squad as an excuse.

“I believe we are good enough to play good rugby at this level. As a collective, we definitely want to be better. We’re feeling the pressure, but we certainly haven’t given up.”

As a positive, two youngsters who have come through the youth ranks at the Lions – fullback Quan Horn and flank Ruan Venter – both made their debuts for the URC team in the recent clash with Leinster in Dublin.

“The thing with rugby is that with one win you can change things quickly,” Roux said.

“Obviously you want to win consistently, but to do that you first need to chase those smaller victories in different facets of the game.

“Hopefully that translates into a winning game and a change in mindset. We can cultivate a winning habit. We’re not down, we just know we have to fix things.”

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