Lions ready for tough Edinburgh battle in difficult conditions

The Lions are prepared and ready for a tough battle in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Edinburgh at the Hive Stadium in Scotland on Saturday night (kick-off 6pm).

It is their first game of a difficult four week tour that will see them move on to Italy, Wales and Ireland for their next three games in the competition.

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Having lost their opener against the Stormers 35-33 at Ellis Park, the Lions will be desperate to bounce back with a win and get their campaign up and running.

Edinburgh started their season with a tricky 22-17 win over Dragons in Wales and will hope for a better performance being back in front of their home crowd.

The Lions will however take a lot of confidence out of beating Edinburgh on their home ground last season.

“Looking at their squad they’ve got internationals across the board, so they are a formidable team. But we can take a lot of confidence out of our previous encounter against them and we know what to expect,” said Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher.

“I think especially with (former Sharks coach) Sean Everitt being their head coach they will have a little bit of insight in terms of our game plan.

“We have to respect the conditions. From previous experience here we know the conditions are tough. It’s not easy to play here. But we are looking forward to a nice chess game and hopefully we can come out of it on top of the result.”

Star players

One of the things the Lions managed to do over the off season was hold onto most of their star players, so they have a decent amount of experience and they will be hoping that will count for them over the next few games.

One of those is wing Edwill van der Merwe who will hope to bolster the side on his return after missing the opening match through injury, while Henco van Wyk and Ruan Venter will want to make their mark on their first starts after playing off the bench last weekend.

“A lot of guys stayed and we have had a good pre-season together. That’s why the (past) weekend was a little bit disappointing for us because we target that game (for a win),” said Lions eighthman Francke Horn.

“We know this is going to be a tough tour. But we have (many of) the same players from the past two seasons, so that gives us a lot of confidence and we are aiming to get as many wins as we can on tour to kick-start our campaign.

“We have had a really good week of preparation and traveling. So now it’s just about getting used to the conditions.”