Fourie reveals why the Lions are not intimidated by Leinster
SPOTLIGHT: The Lions are confident they can be the surprise package in the United Rugby Championship when they face Leinster in the quarterfinals.
The Lions’ brainstrust consisting of Morne Steyn, Ricardo Loubscher, Julian Redelinghuys, Jaque Fourie, Wessel Roux, and head coach Ivan van Rooyen, addressed the media in an online briefing from Dublin on Friday.
In an informal and relaxed discussion, the coaches talked about their maiden URC quarterfinal berth and how they fancy their chances of causing an upset.
Fourie touched on the team’s young age profile and highlighted the reason why it’s not necessarily a bad thing to play these youngsters in such a big match.
“We are playing in a quarterfinal with a young group of guys,” Fourie said.
“The nice thing about it, if you take players like Siba Mahashe, Batho Hlekani… they’re so young that they sometimes don’t even care about the opponents they’re up against.
“They just want to play rugby. Sometimes, that’s a really nice thing that they don’t overthink the occasion.
“It is a quarterfinal, but for us as a management group, the team has to buy into our plans, and we all know that play-off rugby is a different beast where anything can happen.
“We must just be up for it on the day and give it our all.”
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Steyn added to Fourie’s comments, stating that anything can happen in a knockout match, but that the Lions shouldn’t squander points-scoring chances if they were to cause an upset.
“No one is giving us a chance, which is a good thing for us,” the former Springbok flyhalf said.
“It will be tough. We might get three or four [scoring] chances, which we must finish off.
“The ball isn’t round, and we’ve been involved in finals where the ball didn’t bounce our way.
“We must approach it as just another game and not make the occasion bigger than it is, and just go out and have fun.”
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Van Rooyen pinpointed key areas of their Round 17 clash against Leo Cullen’s men where they fell short and embraced his team donning the underdog tag.
“The difference this time round is that we played against them two weeks ago, so we know a bit more what to expect.
“To be honest, we knew they had a strong rush defence, but because our own system isn’t that we don’t train for it every week.
“It’s fair to say they caught us a bit off guard with their aggressive linespeed.
“The benefit this time around is that we had a realistic test of what it’s like to face them.
“We do have new plans in place to create [scoring] opportunities.
“Leinster will most likely select a stronger side [than two weeks ago], which is fair.
“We have big expectations and excitement for next weekend, and we see it as an opportunity for us as a group to take a step forward and make history against a Test outfit.
“No one’s giving us a chance, and sometimes it’s not a bad thing to don the underdog tag.”
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