URC – “Sometimes You Just Need To Be Straight In Their Faces” – Jaques Fourie

 

Jaque Fourie said at a media event the Emirates Lions will not focus on next weekend’s clash with Leinster in Dublin, they will not take their eyes off Saturday’s match against Zebre despite their current position on the URC log.

“Zebre are a tough team, and they play for 80 minutes. It’s a big challenge for us ahead of next week’s match against Leinster, which will potentially be a top-of-the-table clash, between two of only three unbeaten teams right now. So, it’s a big motivator to win this weekend.”

"It is still early in the season. We're getting better and better. So, hopefully, this weekend, you know, a team like Zebra, they like unstructured attack. We will have to force them, defensively force them to a structured attack to get the ball back again."

"The Lions love to play with width and it's great to see when it comes off. But sometimes you just need to be straight in their faces."

"It's going to rain, it's probably going to rain a lot. So, the conditions are not going to allow us to play an expansive game. So, then we'll probably have to go to, you know, direct game. And we've got the players to do that."

"We're quite comfortable in going into a kicking battle as well as staying in that and playing in the right areas of the field. And we're also quite comfortable when we get into those areas to keep the ball through a lot of phases to go score tries."

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity this weekend to play Zebre, and then next weekend, we play the team on top of the log."

“As players and coaches, those are the teams you want to play against, to measure yourself. If and when we win this weekend, next weekend is probably a top-of-the-table clash against Leinster, so we will give it our all against them next week."

“But we first need to do the job this weekend. Zebre is not an easy team, and if we are going in with that mindset, that it’s just going to be a walk in the park, we will be making a big mistake.”