Lions get behind under-fire kicker

27 October 2014 - 02:09 By Liam del Carme
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Marnitz Boshoff,
Marnitz Boshoff,
Image: Sunday Times

"An injury to one is an injury to all," or words to that effect, was the Lions' way of brushing aside sharp criticism of their flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff in the wake of their Currie Cup final defeat to Western Province on Saturday.

Coach Johan Ackermann and captain Warren Whiteley were reluctant to play the blame game after the Lions produced a stirring second half only to see Boshoff's penalty attempt to take the game to 19-19 and extra time drift wide.

The Lions failed to find their rhythm as Boshoff and scrumhalf Ross Cronje had an off day in general play, while the former's usually trusty kicking game was off the mark. Ackermann, though, tried to deflect criticism of Boshoff.

"You can't blame one person. There were other situations where we shouldn't have conceded points or when we could have taken better decisions. It is a team effort and it is unfortunate that he was the one who had a chance to level matters.

"If a player makes mistakes on a particular day it is easy to forget the games they've won for you. You could say that if we converted all our kicks we could have won."

And for that Boshoff as the team's sharpshooter has to take responsibility. The coach pointed to some of the team's mental lapses that let Province off the hook.

"When the score was 13-all we made one or two dumb decisions and gave them a soft penalty."

That penalty, ironically, was conceded by Boshoff, who again ran up a blind alley around his team's 22.

Boshoff's more glaring failures, however, came via the boot, converting just three of his seven attempts at goal. In mitigation, a capricious south-easterly made for conditions to which Boshoff would have been unaccustomed.

"It's easy to say afterwards what we should have done," said Ackermann, who had to defend the decision to fly in on match day, thus robbing his kickers of lengthier time to fine-tune their radar.

"Look, even if Bossie said that he wanted to kick at the ground a day before the game it may not have helped as conditions change. It is something we can look at, maybe send the kickers earlier.

"We learnt some lessons and the experience will stand them in good stead should we be in a similar situation," said Ackermann.

Whiteley concurred, pointing out that it was the first Currie Cup final for 20 of their players.

"This team has grown immensely in the last 12 months," the captain said. "The coach has created an amazing culture, one of brotherhood and one of excellence.

"We really enjoy playing together and we fight together and we enjoy what we do. There are definitely big things to come for us."

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