Jaco Kriel calls for improvement from Lions despite fine form

Although the Lions have caught the eye with some impressive performances in recent weeks, experienced back-row Jaco Kriel believes there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Under the guidance of head coach Ivan van Rooyen, the Johannesburg-based outfit have done well since returning to action after the international break and what is encouraging is that they done that with several young and inexperienced players in their ranks.

The Lions are unbeaten since the start of December and have won three and drawn one of their four fixtures in the United Rugby Championship and Challenge Cup during that period.

However, they face a tough schedule away from home over the next six weeks in both tournaments. They kick off on Friday with an away clash with the Sharks on Friday in the URC before heading to Cape Town to face the Stormers in the same competition.

They then head to Ireland to do battle with Munster in the URC before resuming their Challenge Cup campaign with back-to-back matches against Stade Francais and the Dragons in Paris and Newport respectively.

That will not be the end of their overseas assignments, however, as they then head to Galway where they take on Connacht in another URC encounter at the end of January.

Former Springboks and Gloucester flanker Kriel, who was the Lions' stand-in captain in their Challenge Cup triumph over Stade Francais on Friday, knows that the team face a tough schedule over the next month and a half and highlighted the importance of improvement.

"There is still a lot of URC rugby to be played over the coming weeks, with the Challenge Cup in between and we are going on a long tour in January," Kriel told the Citizen.

"We are a young team, which isnâ™t an excuse not to perform anymore, but we have to grow week by week and take it week by week. Otherwise if we look too far ahead we will lose focus of what we are supposed to work on in the build-up to each game."

Despite registering a draw against the Dragons and a win over Stade Francais, Kriel feels the team is not the finished article yet.

"For me we are not firing on all cylinders yet. I thought we had a really good 20 to 30 minutes (against Stade Francais) and then it felt like we got over excited because of the space that was available," he said.

"I thought we could have done better in the second half. We weren't at our best and if Stade Francais had taken a few more chances they could have punished our mistakes. In this competition we have to be better. We have to be patient in what we do and back the plan."