Smith ready to unleash backs

UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP

- MORGAN BOLTON

AS THE Lions jogged out onto the Johannesburg Stadium pitch yesterday, a degree of relief and optimism permeated through the team — both during the training session and their off-field duties thereafter.

The sun was out and a comforting humidity clung to the air. Moving in from the south, a head of thunderclouds had begun rolling in, teasing a good old-fashioned afternoon storm, their cotton-like bellows scattering the heat every so often.

One suspects the Bulls, some 60km up the road, have had similar feelings of comfort this week. Both teams, after all, have just returned from Europe, where they played in testing conditions. The Lions, especially, were lashed by rain in their games against Perpignan and, most recently, the Ospreys.

Both matches ended in hard-fought draws: the former a 20-20 affair that saw them knocked out of the EPCR Challenge Cup, while the latter was an equally drenched encounter that ended 24-24 in the United Rugby Championship (URC). The Bulls, meanwhile, ground out morale-boosting away victories against Edinburgh (19-16) in the URC and Pau (26-24) in the Champions Cup.