WELLINGTON Matthew Stafford Jersey , New Zealand (AP)The Lions will attempt to end a three-match losing streak when they host the Brumbies during a crucial round of matches this weekend in Super Rugby’s South African conference.The Johannesburg-based Lions hold a seven-point lead in the South Africa conference despite losing consecutive matches to the Queensland Reds, Wellington-based Hurricanes and Dunedin-based Highlanders on an Australasian tour on which they also beat the New South Wales Waratahs 29-0.Their return home and a match against the Brumbies, the lowest-placed of the Australian clubs, seems a strong chance for the Lions to end their losing streak. But the Brumbies have won four of the last five matches between the teams in Johannesburg and are strengthened by the return of Wallabies flanker David Pocock after a two-week injury break.Pocock will be a major figure in the match and his work at the breakdown will be crucial to the Brumbies’ effort to slow the Lions’ phase possession and dull its attacking game. The Lions lead the tournament with 58 tries this season while the Brumbies have scored only 28.But the Lions’ defense has been less effective than the Brumbies, who have conceded only 30 tries so far. The Lions scored 15 and conceded 13 during their four matches in Australia and New Zealand, reflecting the disparity in their attack and defense this season.Lions defense coach Joey Mongalo is not too concerned that the Lions leak almost as many tries as they score.”I love watching the guys score tries,” he said. ”We lead the try scoring chart by quite a bit. Being attack-minded is in the Lions’ DNA.”It doesn’t make my job as defense coach more difficult. It’s about putting a plan in place if things don’t go our way.”The Lions’ recent three losses have allowed their conference rivals to shorten the lead but Mongalo is confident they can keep challengers at bay.”Maybe there are one or two small things we can adjust but there is no reason to reinvent the wheel,” he said. ”I believe in continuous learning and there are a few things we picked up on tour.”The contest for second spot in the South African conference will come to life in this weekend’s 14th round in which the second-place Jaguares play the third-place Bulls and the fourth-place Sharks take on the Chiefs. The last-place Stormers meet Japan’s Sunwolves, who are coming off their first win of the season with a thumping 63-28 victory at home last weekend over the Reds.The Jaguares, Bulls and Sharks are all level on 24 points – separated by points differential – and the Stormers are only a point behind.The winners of those matches have a chance to close the gap on the Lions and to stake a claim for a playoff spot.The 14th round kicks off with the No. 2-ranked Hurricanes hosting Queensland and also includes the competition-leading Crusaders traveling to Auckland to face the Blues and the Waratahs hosting the Highlanders. Lions linebacker Steve Longa now has a new home team Tracy Walker Jersey , one he’s been dreaming of joining for years.Via Dave Birkett of the , Longa completed the process of becoming a United States citizen last month.Longa came to this country 12 years ago, the son of a refugee from Cameroon, and he and his family dreamed of the day they’d become citizens for years. But then 19 months ago, his father was killed, making the ceremony a bittersweet one for Longa.“It hasn’t been smooth,” Longa said. “But I am fortunate enough that I’ve got to this point cause some people have been waiting a lot longer. Although it hasn’t been smooth, I am happy with the way it went. I’ve learned a lot through this process, watching my dad go through it, my mom go through it. I thought it was just going to be something that’s cool Da’Shawn Hand Jersey , go in and do it. I didn’t expect all the emotions to hit me like they did.”His mother became a citizen last year, and his sister is scheduled to finish the process later this spring, completing the journey that Etienne Longa began in 2002, when he came to America as a political exile. Five years later, his family joined him.“I [was never] really scared, cause my dad was living here and he always told us the great stuff about this country,” Longa said. “So the way he described when we arrived, I was about 10, 15 feet ahead of my mom and my sister and I was just so excited looking around. And he said if you didn’t know no better, you would think I knew where I was going Jarrad Davis Jersey , but I did not. I was just scanning so fast, and then I spotted him while my mom and my sister were in the back just following. It was like, ‘We’re just going trust that you know where you’re going.’ ”Steve Longa applied for citizenship last December, as he was recovering from last year’s torn ACL, giving him time to study for the civics test that every applicant has to pass.It’s also worth noting that in 2017, Longa was among the players who kneeled during the national anthem, as part of a protest against police brutality and racial inequality. The freedoms guaranteed by those documents he studied allowed him to do so, and his journey guaranteed that he could not have taken them for granted.