Lions boss on Leinster challenge: ‘Just look at their record’

The desperately out of form Lions will have to improve and learn fast over the next two weeks of training as they prepare to face Irish powerhouse Leinster in their next United Rugby Championship match in Ireland next weekend.

It has been a disappointing four weeks of local derby action with the Lions losing all four games. However, they have no time to dwell on that and will have to put in a massive effort in training to lift themselves to play against the competition’s most successful team.

Despite the fact that they will be missing a host of Irish internationals who’re on Six Nations duty, they will still be a massive challenge, especially on their home turf.

“It’s a great challenge to go play Leinster in Ireland. Just look at their record, they are the most successful team by far in this competition,” admitted Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“Even though they are playing without 12 or 13 Irish players, I still think they are the in-form team in the competition.

“The best way to learn is to experience it first hand and not a lot of players from the current (Lions) team, other than Jaco (Kriel) and Jannie (du Plessis) have played a team of this calibre, whether it is the Crusaders, Leinster or one of the French teams.

“So it is a great challenge for us and a great opportunity to go out there and fix what we need to fix.”

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One of the major places the Lions need to improve is their defence, with their one on one tackling having been exposed in the four local derbies over the past month. Captain Jaco Kriel admitted that this was a problem the players had to fix themselves.

“There is only so much that a coach can do in terms of a defensive system, so in terms of missed tackles that isn’t the fault of the system or the team. So I think in terms of missed tackles the guys must take personal responsibility in that and we must pride ourselves on being better,” said Kriel.

Another concerning aspect is at the lineouts where the Lions have struggled to retain their own ball, due to having just one fit lock available and being forced to use loose forwards to play in the position over the past few weeks, however they should receive a boost with some of the juniors returning to action.

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“The reality is that almost all of our locks are injured. We lost six locks in about three or four weeks which was concerning, but all three of our Currie Cup locks recently returned to training,” explained Van Rooyen.

“I think that Ruben Schoeman is doing an unbelievable job, he’s a four lock playing five, playing 80 minutes every week, calling line outs and I think that adds character, so that’s massive for him.

“But that’s where we are currently, we are playing loose forwards at four lock. Luckily one or two of the junior locks should be healed up in time for our trip to Leinster. So it’s important for them to get in a good Currie Cup game against the Sharks and then we will look in terms of team selection.”