Lions And Bulls Face Pivotal Period Following Disappointing Defeats

The Lions and Bulls have some soul-searching to do after their defeats this past weekend, but they will have a two-week break to lick their wounds before their next matches.

While the Jukskei derby between the two sides in the United Rugby Championship uRC is scheduled for January 25, the northern neighbours will have two European clashes next month to pick up some momentum ahead of facing each other.

The Lions succumbed to the Stormers in Cape Town, while the Bulls fell to a depleted Sharks despite fielding a strong side.

Both sides have some introspection to do over the next couple of weeks, especially because their URC campaigns started so well that they became the tone-setting teams in South Africa. But after a couple of losses, they must now find momentum in the Champions Cup for the Bulls and Challenge Cup for the Lions to get their season back on track.

The Bulls are on a three-match losing streak and in two of those games their pack dominated the scrums to a point where you wonder how they ended up on the losing side. But there clearly are some things that are not working for the Loftus outfit and they have over the next couple of weeks to find a solution.