Clean slate for Lions ahead of Champions Cup debut against La Rochelle
INTERVIEW: Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher and scrumhalf Nico Steyn fronted the media in an online media conference on Wednesday ahead of their away Champions Cup debut against La Rochelle.
The Lions come off a demoralising 15-57 defeat to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in the third round of the United Rugby Championship and now have the daunting task of facing the former two-time Champions Cup winners in their backyard.
For Loubscher and the team, the result against the Bulls wasn’t a true reflection of the Lions as a whole, and he said the team will start on a clean slate this coming Saturday.
“It was a tough, honest review on Monday where we looked at the things we need to do better,” Loubscher told the press.
“It was good to walk out of that meeting knowing that, from our point of view, we were not ourselves, not good enough and made too many errors against the Bulls.
“We know this weekend is a different challenge facing one of the top teams in Europe, so our main thing is that we’re looking for a response from the team.”
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Loubscher touched on the challenges of playing in France, having coached in the country during his stint with Stade Francais, and what the Lions need to do to get a positive result.
“One of the big things in France is the pre-game atmosphere; there’s a massive vibe and the French teams play with a lot of passion, especially at home.
“The important thing for us is to start well and make sure we silence the crowd because they love to get their supporters behind them.
“We know the conditions will be a big part of the game; they like to play unstructured rugby and score tries from everywhere on the field, but from our point of view it’s all about our intent; what we take into the game, and our execution must go up a level.”
The Lions are notorious for inconsistency, something that they will seek at one of the toughest club venues in the world at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre.
“The big focus against La Rochelle is just to ensure we play according to our different menus,” Loubscher said.
“There’s a menu for attack, defence, but it all comes down to our intent in terms of our execution in our jobs.
“If we can get that right with more alignment and clarity in terms of our way of playing, we can turn those opportunities around into points.”
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Scrumhalf Steyn echoed Loubscher’s sentiments.
“We can’t look back on last week’s game against the Bulls and hammer on it the whole time; we need to put that behind us.
“We know La Rochelle are a strong French team with a heavy pack, but for us it’s about getting back to the Lions way of doing things – moving the ball around and playing towards our strengths and we should be fine for the match.”
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