Winger Rabz Maxwane has been included in the Lions team for the match against Glasgow Warriors. Picture: Valentine Chapuis/Gallo Images
It’s now make-or-break for the Lions to stay in the hunt for the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals, and their task could not be any harder.
After an up and down season, in which they have won just 50% of their games (eight out of 16), they find themselves in 10th place on the points table with 44 points, needing to win on Saturday against the top-placed Glasgow Warriors to go into the final round of matches in two weeks’ time still alive in the competition.
A defeat on Saturday, against a team coming off a narrow defeat by the Bulls and desperate to stay in the hunt to finish in first place in two weeks’ time, will all but end the Lions’ hopes of playing in the quarter-finals.
A number of other results would have to go the Lions’ way this weekend and they’d probably also have to beat the Stormers in Cape Town in their final match on June 1 to make it through, and the chances of all this happening and everything falling into place for Ivan van Rooyen’s team are slim.
All the Lions can do right now though is focus on Saturday’s match at Ellis Park, at 4.05pm, and ensure they give themselves their best chance of beating Franco Smith’s team.
It won’t be easy because Glasgow are a team who go the full 80 minutes, as witnessed in their performance against the Bulls a week ago, while they lead the stats for attack and defence, so they have very few weak points.
It doesn’t even seem that playing on the highveld in the early afternoon matters to them, something acknowledged by the Lions this week.
“We’d be making a big mistake if we thought the altitude factor was going to help us against any overseas team anymore,” said scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys. And he’d be right, as we say at Loftus last weekend when Glasgow finished the game far stronger than their hosts did.
The Lions will need a big, clinical performance on Saturday if they’re to see off Smith’s Warriors, or they can kiss the URC playoffs goodbye.
For all the URC team news click here.
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