John Mitchell frustrated by Lions performance – Super Rugby update
John Mitchell, the Lions coach has pointed out the weak attempts at the set pieces as the major factor for the failure on Saturday. Mitchell seemed disappointed for the loss against the Reds and the poor endeavour that Lions made, leaving a bad taste of
unexpected defeat.
Scoreboard concluded at 30-25 and it was a sore defeat for the New Zealander. They missed four clear shots at the post and the fly half Andre Pretorius was deeply missed. The missed shots cost them a total of 10 points. Mitchell was highly disappointed and
to some extent frustrated at the outcome.
He said, “The thing that disappointed me the most in the performance was the set-pieces in the second half. Our failure there became extremely costly as your backs can't live off ball received behind the advantage line and there were some poor individual
choices in kick-and-receive as well.”
Though, the Lions showed composure and focus in first half and they played in all the correct areas, passing the ball and moving it with ease, but then later on things were a bit greasy for them. Lions defended well and were putting the pressure on the Reds,
but it wasn’t destined to be their match.
Doppies la Grange, the Lions captain, looked confident after the first half and the collective team effort and after the game said that he will deducing a few positive aspects from the game along the negativities.
He said, “We didn't make the right choices in the second half as opposed to the first, which I thought was excellent. We kept composure and that is something we were working on the whole week and we kept to our game plan and the result showed in the first
half.”
So far in the Super 15 campaign, Lions have accomplished one victory and Mitchell was reasonably disappointed with the defeat. The coach claimed that this match has resulted in to what he had earlier predicted.
He said, “As much as it hurts short-term, there is a long-term goal here and there's a lot of work to do in this union before we can get to the top. While everyone is after an outcome, we have to be deserving of it and right at the moment we are not.”
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