{"id":49679,"date":"2026-11-01T19:47:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49679"},"modified":"2026-11-01T19:47:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:47:54","slug":"sas-lions-head-home-after-traumatic-europe-tour","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-lions-head-home-after-traumatic-europe-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s Lions head home after traumatic Europe tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South Africa\u2019s (SA) Lions rugby team headed home at the weekend after an emotion-sapping three-week trip to Europe during which lock Hyron Andrews collapsed and died.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200b31-year-old was found unresponsive at the team hotel in France on \u200cOctober 16 on the eve of the provincial franchise\u2019s debut in the European Champions Cup against La Rochelle, with a later autopsy finding he had suffered a tear in the aorta.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Lions elected \u200bto play the match despite the trauma of his death and then stayed \u200bon in Europe for another fortnight for two United Rugby Championship \u2060matches in Scotland against Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They were warmly applauded by French \u200bfans amid emotional scenes ahead of the La Rochelle clash when players shed tears \u200bduring a minute\u2019s silence before kickoff and after the game when the La Rochelle players formed a guard of honour as the Lions left the field.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But La Rochelle soundly beat them 31-14 and \u200bthey went down 31-10 to Edinburgh the following week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However on Friday, they ran \u200bGlasgow Warriors close, eventually going down 29-20.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It was an incredibly difficult tour in the bigger scheme \u200cof things,\u201d \u2060said coach Ivan van Rooyen.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe character we showed during the La Rochelle and Glasgow games is something we are proud of.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Edinburgh game week was exceptionally tough mentally and unfortunately it showed a bit in the game.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Van Rooyen praised the way the \u200bplayers had rallied \u200btogether after Andrews\u2019 death.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe \u2060senior players were immense in terms of team identity and playing style, taking ownership and leading by example,&#8221; Van Rooyen said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Throughout \u200bthe three weeks, I honestly believe the management was truly \u200bunbelievable. We \u2060are truly blessed to have incredible people in our team.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The heart and the character to stand up and fight for each other was incredible.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Andrews\u2019 funeral is expected to take \u2060place in \u200bthe coming weeks as the players have been \u200bgiven time off before returning in mid-November to begin preparations for a resumption of their URC campaign against \u200bthe Bulls on December 5 in Johannesburg.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters-<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22148,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-49679","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Lions elected \u200bto play the match despite the trauma of his death.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Lions elected \u200bto play the match despite the trauma of his death.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49681,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49679\/revisions\/49681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}