'Disciplined' Lions beat internal drama to turn things around: 'Our rugby now talks'

• The Lions have seemingly turned over a new leaf after the drama surrounding their internal issues a fortnight ago.
• Coach Ivan van Rooyen hailed his charges' execution and character in capitalising on momentum with actual points on the board.
• He hopes the momentum is kept up ahead of another batch of overseas fixtures.

Whether it's player-power becoming the dominant voice or there's truly a newfound understanding and synergy with their beleaguered coaching staff, the Lions have seemingly turned over a new leaf after the drama of the MyPlayers survey of late last year.

The saga exploded a fortnight ago as allegations of poor appraisals for Ivan van Rooyen and some of his deputies surfaced, along with suspect logistics on January's trip to Europe.

With on-field results declining rapidly, the writing seemed on the wall.

But Saturday's momentous 29-25 victory over the Bulls at Loftus - the Lions' first URC triumph over a South African team in over a year - allied with a last week's positive result over Glasgow suggest a turning point.  

"The last two weeks did the talking in that regard, we're focusing on the rugby because that's something we can control and what's being written on that," said Van Rooyen.

"Hats off to the players for doing that the past few weeks."

The Lions took their opportunities well in the first quarter against a wayward and lethargic Bulls combination and defended like trojans in the latter stages as Jake White's troops mounted a fightback.

In fact, composed best describes how the men from Doornfontein managed to preserve their advantage, quite skillfully absorbing pressure at vital stages.

Improved discipline is also helping, particularly in terms of preserving the fire in the bellies because fatigue isn't creeping in.

"That's the point of difference from January, we've tightened up our discipline and we're not giving away so many penalties anymore. When you're doing that between minutes 40 and 60, you have the kick to touch 40 to 50m back into your half, have to defend the maul and work around the corner. That's going to make you a lot more tired," said Van Rooyen. 

"Either attacking or not conceding that penalty while hoping for a normal defensive turnover after 3 or 4 phases is going to make you a lot less tired.

"We've cleaned up our discipline a little bit you don't have to use that previous energy to defend so much because you can easily fall into the rut of just defending. That makes you tired.

"Well done to the guys, their work rate and character was awesome."

Despite much of the plaudits going, deservedly so, to halfback Sanele Nohamba for a brilliant individual showing that delivered 24 points, it's undeniable that the Lions' execution in general was much improved, illustrating too that they possess an overall template capable of delivering success in the tournament.

"The frustrating thing is that we played enough and created enough in recent defeats but just weren't able to turn it into points," said Van Rooyen.

"Confidence arising from these last two weeks will be huge. We're not just scoring three points, but five or sevens and to do it will ball in hand or set-pieces.

"In terms of confidence, it's an Us against the world mindset for the rest of the season because we have our backs to the wall to finish in the top 8. There's a lot of travelling that will put pressure on us to continue to perform but we wanted to be more dynamic and we're managing to do that."