Like any scrumhalf, Morné van den Berg takes an almost perverse pleasure watching his forwards do their business at scrum time.
Indeed, the degree of his delight could be a solid indicator as to who will come out tops when the Lions travel to Cape Town to face the Stormers tomorrow (1.45pm kick-off) in their final round and season-defining United Rugby Championship clash.
“It is nice when you dominate somebody,” said “Krappie” with a smile this week.
“If you see your pack going forward, it’s such a big pressure release while you gain momentum. If there is dominance, you know it is going to be a good day to launch from, to play from and to set up opportunities.”
The margins that could decide the outcome between the Lions and the Stormers, in most respects, are finely balanced.
In attack, the Cape-based side are rated third, while their opponents tomorrow are fourth.
Defensively, they are locked together as the 13th-best teams in the league, and it might just come down to the grunt work at the set pieces and breakdown that define their clash.
Statistically speaking, the Lions are the best scrummaging unit in the tournament, the Stormers are 13th; while at the line-outs, it is reversed, with the Stormers the fourth best team and the Lions eighth.
At the breakdown, the Lions have won more turnovers (107 to 79), while they share a similar tackle success – 88% for the hosts to the 86% for the visitors.
Van den Berg, then, is expecting a massive clash upfront as they seek to stretch the Stormers thin outside in an effort to claim a bonus-point victory, which will assure them of play-off qualification and possibly Champions Cup rugby, too.
We're in Cape Town this Saturday for an epic clash! Lions in the Cape, will we see you there? 🦁🔥
— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) May 27, 2024
🆚 @THESTORMERS
🗓: Sat, 1 June
⏰: 13:45
🎟: https://t.co/h5Lv7ChApe
🏟 : DHL Stadium, Cape Town#LionsPride🦁 pic.twitter.com/3eeQO4L3re
Said the 26-year-old: “The Stormers are very good at broken play.
“They have got X-factor players, so – if you give them time – they can really bring the magic, if you want to call it that. It’s about closing their time by expecting it and being in the moment.
“It’s going to be a massive battle for the pack, and I am keen to see what our boys are going to do. I expect a lot from them…
“I’ll take anything that comes out of the scrum. I back our boys to give me a good platform to play from.”
It is expected that the Lions will continue with the loose trio of JC Pretorius, Emmanuel Tshituka and Francke Horn.
Pretorius and Horn were particularly immense in the 44-21 victory in the absence of an injured Tshituka and the red card sanctioning of his replacement, Ruan Venter.
Pretorius has settled nicely into his XVs role, and his constant threat at the ruck has made the Lions opponents wary, and perhaps allowed the Joburgers more freedom to attack the breakdown across the board.
The likes of Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha and Van den Berg also did some fine ground work, and with the Stormers having lost 235 breakdowns, it is an area the Lions could attack.
“We are going to stick to our structure,” said assistant coach Jaque Fourie of that essential department. “We need to make better decisions at the defensive breakdown.
“We know that they want to offload, that they want to get in behind you and play with quick ball. Our challenge is going to be to stop them on the advantage line and be dominant there.”
The former Springbok centre also hinted that the Lions will seek to shift the contact point of the line-outs immediately, instead of perhaps getting bogged down in an arm-wrestle, and with good reason.
Although the Lions have been able to retain possession there, it has arguably not been as clinical, while resulting mauls have not generated much purchase.
“All the teams that you play now,” he explained, “they’ve got good, functioning defensive line-outs... The Stormers also have a good one.
“For us, it’s about getting the easiest ball and to get playing.
“Against Glasgow, we won all of our line-outs. Yes, it wasn’t pretty, but stats don’t tell you how we won them – it only said we got it, and then we can start playing,” he concluded.