Lions to take learnings from tough tour into Connacht match

The Lions are looking to take all of the learnings from a tough European tour into their final game of the four week tour when they face Connacht in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match at the Sportsground in Galway on Saturday night (kick-off 9:35pm).

The Lions tour started with a heavy URC loss against Munster in Ireland, before heading to Paris where they lost their Challenge Cup match against Stade Francais.

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They then travelled to Wales where they took on the Dragons, also in the Challenge Cup, and emerged with a tight 30-25 win that broke a four match losing streak.

They have faced difficult conditions in each of their games so far and are expecting more of the same against Connacht in Galway, but will head into the match with confidence off the back of a win.

“I think all of us can agree that playing in these conditions is like playing Test rugby. You have to take your chances, you have to keep the scoreboard ticking and put scoreboard pressure on the opposition,” explained Lions assistant coach Jaque Fourie.

“It’s then very important to play in the right areas of the field. It’s not easy. Some games we have played where the wind is blowing at 30km/h, so you can hardly kick the ball into the wind, which means you have to keep the ball for long phases and run the ball out of your half.

“These are things that we aren’t used to, but have to get used to, and I think the quicker we can adapt to these things the better it will be for the South African teams.”

Focus on Connacht

Due to having lost their last three URC matches the Lions have slipped down the table from being in the play-off places to 12^th position, but Fourie claims the team is not focusing on that as their full focus is on the Connacht game.

“At this stage we are not too worried about where we are laying on the table. There are still seven games left in the URC for us and they are tough games. We’ve got Leinster, we’ve got Benetton, the Sharks, and the Bulls,” said Fourie.

“We are taking it game-by-game and our focus is on Connacht. For us, it is a very important game because I think if we can pull this one off this weekend, it will put our URC campaign back on track again.

“Then we will take it from there. We will reassess when we get back at home, push the reset button and take on the next few games again.”