Lions assistant coach Jaque Fourie: ‘We want to face Damian de Allende’

Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie is excited to see his charges front up against Springbok centre Damian de Allende, as they want to test themselves against the best in their United Rugby Championship match against Munster this weekend.

De Allende, who plays for the Irish side, made his long awaited return from injury this past weekend against the Bulls, and in an impressive 30 minute cameo showed his explosive qualities, while he was also awake to pounce on an opportunity to score a try from a stolen lineout.

The question is now whether he will slot back into the starting line-up or if he will continue to be eased back into playing off the bench?

“Damian is a good player, we all know that. But in this competition you play against international players week in and week out, and if you want to be the best you have to play against these guys,” said Fourie.

“These are the players you want to play against, you want to measure yourself against the best in the world and that is the only way you are going to get better.

“So we are looking forward to the challenge and I hope he (De Allende) plays, because it will be good for our players to play against him.”

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The Lions will now be looking to build on their past weekend’s win against Cardiff, which broke a five match losing streak, but they now find themselves up against a very tough opponent who will not go away.

“It’s always nice to get a win, we hadn’t had one under the belt since the Stormers game (in December),” said Fourie. “So it is a positive step in the right direction and we are happy with the result. But in saying that, we still have a lot of hard work to do to get better.

“Munster is a different beast, we saw what they are capable of against the Bulls. They are a side that if you don’t do your basics right they are going to punish you.

“They are also a team who play for 85 minutes, you saw against the Bulls they came back quite strongly, so we have to be ready for that.”