'Victorious' Eloff eyes the Sharks
Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:04
Lions coach Eugene Eloff felt like a "winner", despite his team's 6-14 Currie Cup defeat to Western Province at Newlands at the weekend.
Speaking in the aftermath of the game, Eloff said he will start planning for his team's trip to Durban - and a semifinal showdown with the Sharks - on Monday.
The Lions secured the fourth and final place in the Currie Cup semifinals in a game where WP won the battle, but ultimately lost the war in the final match of the regular season.
WP, needing four tries for a bonus-point and a winning margin of 19 points or more to leapfrog their opponents into the playoffs, never looked like getting the required margin or number of tries against a resolute Lions outfit.
The upshot is that the Lions will travel to Durban to take on the table-topping Sharks on Saturday, while the Blue Bulls, who finished second, host the Free State Cheetahs (third) at Loftus Versfeld.
Speaking after his team's loss to WP on Saturday, Eloff said he would start thinking about the semifinals on Monday, but the Lions boss was a relieved man nonetheless.
"It feels like a win," said Eloff, whose team beat the Sharks in last year's semifinals.
"It was a tremendous defensive effort and we showed great courage."
The Lions battled for possession against a fired-up WP team, but Eloff revealed his team went to Cape Town to win and not just for 'damage control' – a defeat by less than 19 points.
"Our goal was always to win," said Eloff.
"We wanted to slow it down to keep the structure, but we also wanted to attack. It may have looked [from the sidelines] that we just wanted to contain, but that certainly wasn't the case – we just didn't have the ball and couldn't do much from there."
