Lions backing their 'wild dogs & mad men'

SPOTLIGHT: To appropriate the phrase first coined by British playwright and composer Noël Coward: ‘The Lions will unleash their wild dogs on Leinster.’

The actual phrase, popularised by English singer John Robert ‘Joe’ Cocker, reads: ‘Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.’

The Lions will go into the heat of an Irish cauldron at Lansdowne Road on Saturday for their United Rugby Championship quarterfinal in Dublin.

Irish pundits and media overwhelmingly favour Leinster, making the Lions rank outsiders.

Yes, the Irish province may be smarting from their humbling loss (19-41) to Union Bordeaux Bègles in the Champions Cup Final this past weekend.

And there may also be some residual mental scars from the trip to Spain, but they are facing a Lions sans three key Springboks in banned prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye, as well as injured flank Ruan Venter and injured scrumhalf Morné van den Berg.

There is also still uncertainty about the availability of captain (and No.8) Francke Horn, as well as centre Henco van Wyk.

The Lions have never beaten Leinster in Ireland, and Leinster won the most recent meeting 31-7 earlier this month.

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However, Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys said they are happy with the ‘underdog’ tag and have paid close attention to what worked for the opposition in recent losses to Union Bordeaux Bègles and Benetton.

“Leinster have an incredible team,” the retired Springbok prop said, adding: “We lost to them [7-31] a few weeks ago, so we know very well what is coming.”

He added they are expecting Leinster to field a stronger team than the one that outlasted them on May 9, when a late rally (three tries in the final 10 minutes) shattered the Lions’ dreams of an upset.

“We are under no illusions as to what it will take this weekend,” Redelinghuys said.

“We also saw how Bordeaux played against them, as well as other teams that beat them.”

In last week’s Champions Cup Final in Spain, the Leinster team was physically overwhelmed and struggled to enforce their game plan on the French outfit, in stark contrast to what they did to the Lions earlier this month.

Against Bordeaux, Leinster lacked the intensity that allowed them to overwhelm the Lions in the closing stages of their league encounter.

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“We have a plan that suits our DNA,” the scrum coach said, adding: “We hope this time it is the correct tactics and our wild dogs can do the job for us this weekend.

“If we can be the best version of ourselves, we will give ourselves a chance.

“We trust we will be more desperate for this knockout game.”

He added that the contact area is vital against any team in any game.

“The team that goes forward in contact, be that attack, defence or set pieces, they have a better chance.

“You see that with the Springboks, and Bordeaux did not come with any fancy tricks either.

“They were doing the small things right, and that creates opportunities.

“I don’t want to give away tactics, but we know what we want to achieve as a team and if we get that right it will give us a good chance.”

With the experience of more than 1,000 Test caps, Leinster is a ‘street smart’ team, with plenty of tricks up their proverbial and collective sleeve.

Redelinghuys also added that the fortnight that the Lions have spent in Dublin has made them a better side and better prepared for what they are about to face on Saturday.

“If I look at our training sessions, we are sharp.

“I think the biggest difference will be the fact that we’ve experienced that now for two weeks.

“We had a week to freshen up and gave the guys a couple of days off and prepped well.”

@JanDKrugby
@rugby365com

* Picture credit: @LionsRugbyCo