Johannesburg - Springbok legend Jaque Fourie says the Lions are not going to Glasgow simply to make up the numbers in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals but to kick on from their excellent win over Racing 92 at the weekend.
Defence coach Fourie was in a buoyant mood on Tuesday when he spoke to the media following the Lions’ phenomenal 51-28 defeat of a top French side, which they had to do with 14 players for three-quarters of the game.
In-form flank Emmanuel Tshituka was red-carded after just 18 minutes and has subsequently been suspended for three weeks.
As well as the Lions played, this week’s opponents, the Glasgow Warriors are on a hot streak and last week smashed the Dragons 73-33.
The last time the Lions played the Warriors was in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in February. That was the game that had been postponed from October last year because the Warriors got sick in Durban. The Lions won 35-24 in what has proved to be a watershed moment for their season.
“That helped us in a positive way,” Fourie said. “We rallied together and decided to start performing. The week before we played Glasgow we decided to take off the shackles and we had nothing to lose.
“It was a tough game against Racing, so the first thing is to get the players physically ready for Glasgow.
“We aren’t going there just to compete, we want to win. We have two games left in the URC and we want to finish on a high. So our focus is to win against Glasgow.”
The Warriors have found rich form under former Cheetahs coach Franco Smith and Fourie knows him well from their playing days. Smith is a former Springbok centre.
“We will keep up what we have been doing, we just want to do it better,” Fourie said. “We know Franco will come with trick plays. We need the discipline to stay within our structure.
“If we do that and we force turnovers, they will rethink their strategy and that will play into our hands. But we need to stop them and force errors, then we will be in for a shout.”
Regarding the loss of Tshituka, Fourie said: “Manu has been playing well. To lose a guy like that is massive. Jaco (Kriel) is coming along quite well, with Manu banned there is an opportunity, he has been training well and is looking good for the weekend.”
IOL Sport