Although the odds are still in their favour, the Lions are preparing for what they believe will be a must-win game in their final United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Munster at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday night.
Despite their heavy defeat to Leinster over the past weekend, the Lions are still in pole position to qualify for the URC playoffs for the first time, with them sitting fifth on the log.
But if results over the coming weekend go massively against them, the match could turn into a playoff knockout with both teams needing to win to progress.
Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen admitted that they wouldn’t be relying on other teams to get them through to the quarterfinals, and that the team would be putting in all their efforts to come out on top against Munster.
“We can’t chance anything with the fixtures and look at what could happen on Friday night. One or two games might show us what is needed. But from our side we see it as a must-win game, both us and Munster need the points to make sure we go through,” explained Van Rooyen.
“We feel it was an opportunity missed against Leinster. So we need to recreate some energy, and get some excitement for the week ahead.
“It is a big week for us. We can control what we can control and we want to make sure that we prepare really well for a tough Munster team, and another big opportunity on Saturday.”
Big blow
The Lions will be without one of their strongest performers for the match, utility forward Ruan Venter, who picked up a serious looking knee injury early in their game against Leinster.
“Unfortunately Ruan Venter flew back home to get scans on that knee. We hope that it is not horrible news. But he is quite uncomfortable and sore. The rest of the guys have a few bumps and bruises, but nothing major,” said Van Rooyen.
There are plenty of permutations for the Lions, and they could already be through to the playoffs before their game against Munster kicks off.
If any one of Cardiff, Ulster or Connacht lose their game on Friday night against the Stormers, Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh respectively the Lions will be through, but if all three win it becomes a straight shootout with Munster for the final playoff spot.
Regardless of the other results, the Lions will be keen to bounce back from their loss against Leinster with a big performance, especially with a possible quarterfinal in Ireland or Scotland coming up, and Van Rooyen explained that the team has things to work on despite a brave effort.
“We showed some great character to fight back (against Leinster). Minute 68 we got three tough calls against us. At 14-7 we could have received some penalties and got into their half. Unfortunately we made three defensive errors that led to three tries,” said Van Rooyen.
“So up until minute 68 we felt we had swung the momentum back into our favour and had an opportunity to maybe do something special against Leinster. But unfortunately in those last 10 minutes we conceded those three tries which threw the score a little bit off.
