Lions ready for big response in Edinburgh knockout match

The Lions are ready to produce a big response when they battle it out against Edinburgh in their EPCR Challenge Cup last 16 clash at the Hive Stadium in Scotland on Friday night (kick-off 9pm).

After a thumping 42-0 loss in their United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter with Glasgow Warriors a week earlier, that has left their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, they could now also be dumped out of the EPCR if they put in a similar performance.

However, Lions prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye said the team is fired up and ready to bounce back from that terrible showing, and are targeting a big effort against a internationally laden side, to try and reignite their flagging season.

“It was a short turnaround for us. We have worked on what we needed to and we have taken a few lessons out of last weekend’s game. We know how big of a challenge Friday’s game is,” explained Ntlabakanye.

“Edinburgh is a very good team, full of Scottish internationals, and they have threats all over to look out for. So we have to be ready. We have prepared our game plan and hopefully things can play out differently to what happened in Glasgow.

“We had a plan last weekend, but we just didn’t follow it and things went south. So we have worked on a clear plan this week and we know what we have to do in order for us to get a positive result.”

Losing run

The Lions are on a three game losing run, after a stunning URC win over the Sharks at Ellis Park last month, they have since lost against the Sharks in Durban, followed by URC tour losses against Cardiff and Glasgow.

That has left them struggling at 14^th on the URC log, so they will be desperate to get back to winning ways against Edinburgh, which would be a major boost to their confidence and would keep alive their hopes of picking up some silverware this season.

“We know we haven’t been good recently and have lost three games on the trot. That is something we want to fix and get a (good) result,” said Ntlabakanye.

“You never know what can happen. It’s playoff rugby and just one point (more) is enough to win you the match.

“We can play much better rugby than we did last weekend. We can take confidence out of our second half performance, after a poor first half, and hopefully we can build on that against Edinburgh.”

Although a venue hasn’t been confirmed yet, the Lions can also take motivation out of a possible Challenge Cup quarterfinal meeting against the Bulls, if both win their last 16 games, in London next weekend, which would be a blockbuster encounter for both teams.