Morné van den Berg and Jaque Fourie say the in-form Lions have returned from a week’s break revved up in the race to the Vodacom URC playoffs.
Following six consecutive wins, Ivan van Rooyen’s Pride are all but assured of a first-ever appearance in the quarter-finals of the URC. They are set to cross swords with Irish giants Leinster in Dublin on Saturday.
The Joburgers are well-placed in third to secure a home playoff, with two rounds left of the regular season, yet Leinster are fresh off a narrow win over Toulon in the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals.
Speaking in a teleconference on Tuesday, Van den Berg told journalists that the Lions have the opportunity to test their game against one of the league’s leading teams at the Aviva Stadium.
“I think we’re at a place where we’re really backing our game” the Springbok scrumhalf said. “And if we can prove to ourselves that that game is good enough to beat Leinster in Dublin, then we can really back ourselves in the playoffs.”
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“We’re going to just take it moment by moment, not get ahead of ourselves this weekend and just really go for it. Now it is our responsibility to go and give it our all.”
Van den Berg highlighted a need to avoid the lapses that Leinster punished in a previous meeting at the Aviva.
“In that game everything changed when we knocked the ball on in the 22 when we had all the momentum,” he said. “One kick changed the game and James Lowe kicked almost a 50:22.”
“It’s playing in the right areas and really, if you have the momentum, to stay on top of them and not have soft moments. In the past we’ve had a lot of soft moments where we just switch off mentally.”
“From a defence point, personally for me, I’ve been very proud of the guys,” Fourie added. “I think we’ve grown heaps and bounds the last four games.”
“After the Bulls game, we came back that Monday and we had to change a few things. And it’s just gotten better and better.”
The former Bok and defence coach said the Lions have built confidence, but the next step is to take that to the Irish capital.
“For us now, I think we’ve had four or five big results at home, that has built a lot of confidence,” Fourie explained. “But that’s what you need when you come to Leinster to play them.”
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“We’ve found our identity. We know how we want to play. We know what we need to do on Saturday to win and to beat Leinster.”
“We’re using our defence as a weapon to go score tries,” he added. “For us, it’s all about putting teams under pressure, getting the ball back and then converting that pressure into points.”
“We know we haven’t achieved anything yet,” he said. “We still have two big games. Our biggest challenge is Saturday in Dublin against Leinster.”
Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
The post Lions licking their lips for Leinster challenge appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Morné van den Berg and Jaque Fourie say the in-form Lions have returned from a week’s break revved up in the race to the Vodacom URC playoffs.
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