Get out there and make this right - that’s the message from Emirates Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie after his side’s “horrific” performance against Glasgow Warriors.
The Lions face Edinburgh in the EPCR Challenge Cup Round of 16 this weekend, and know they need to put in a much better performance if they are to have any chance of advancing to the competition quarterfinals.
The Lions are a lot better than many of their results profess, but they fail to meet their own standards throughout and their inconsistencies have cost them dearly all season.
At some point, if this season they fail to qualify for the top eight of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship once again, they will only have themselves to blame and some deep introspection will be needed.
But that’s the long term view. For now it is Friday night’s game against Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh that takes precedence and will occupy them for the time being.
And Fourie is adamant - the team needs to play a lot better if the Lions are to have any chance of advancing.
“In all aspects of the game we need to get better. We just need to play heads up rugby, that’s what we need to do. Looking at the conditions for Friday night the weather doesn’t look too bad, but in those conditions last week, Glasgow showed us how to play in those conditions, so hopefully it won’t be that bad this Friday,” Fourie said.
'PRESS THE RESET BUTTON'
And then he reiterated that the best thing that could happen for the side was that they had another game as soon as possible.
“A week is a long time in rugby. Even the players and coaches, if we could have played today, after last weekend’s performance, we would have said, let’s play. We would like to correct what went wrong in last weekend’s performance. For us it is about getting on the field, and getting back to winning ways.
“No player goes onto the field to play badly. We just need to press the reset button, it is an EPCR game and it is a knockout game. For us it is going out on Friday night, doing what we love to do and doing it to the best of our abilities.
“Each and every player, and management, wants to do well. For us it is a very important game on Friday night.”
The Lions may have beaten Edinburgh comprehensively, putting up 55 points against them in Johannesburg last time out, but things look markedly different for both sides at the moment, and the Lions need to give themselves a boost of confidence.
“We have learnt our lesson in this competition that you can’t take any team lightly. Even a team like Zebre is competitive. For us it is pushing the reset button, and for Edinburgh the same. We need to be at our best on Friday night and we need to focus just on that. There is no easy team in this competition.”
The Lions will name their side for the clash on Thursday.