Talk is cheap, says Mostert
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He loves his rugby travels but for Lions captain Franco Mostert Buenos Aires doesn’t exactly fall into that category.
Having lost to the Jaguares twice away from home, the Lions leave tomorrow for Argentina and the team’s 27-year-old skipper said it’s no walk in the park playing over there.
In turn, the Lions will also be without scrumhalf Ross Cronje (rib), prop Jacobie Adriaanse (ankle) and lock Andries Ferreira (back), who have all been ruled out for one week through injury.
“Buenos Aires is never a nice place to go and play at but we’ll be backing our big guns and hopefully return to our strengths,” Mostert, who has earned 18 Springbok caps, said.
Mostert these days is inspiring the team from the blindside flank position and admitted they were slightly off par in the 40-38 win against the Sunwolves last weekend.
“I think with us there’s small details which haven’t fallen into place yet, balls that don’t bounce our way, little errors that we can fix ourselves,” he said.
“But we’ll definitely have to go back this week and fix those, but credit to the Sunwolves, you never know what they are going to bring,” he said.
Mostert admitted he is a different captain to their injured regular skipper Warren Whiteley.
“My wife always thought I was a leader, but I’m not one of those guys who talks plenty, I would rather do than talk,” he said.
“There’s a saying that ‘talk is cheap, but money buys the whisky’, so Elton (Jantjies) and some of the others will speak to the ref, my job is to lead with the forwards,” he said.
Mostert said to move from No 5 to No 7 wasn’t always smooth.
“One is privileged, I must say me and coach Swys (de Bruin) bumped heads a few times, but it doesn’t matter where you play,” he said.
“There’s a lot of youngsters who work hard who don’t get a chance so one doesn’t mind, but playing at No 7 is not so much different to playing at No 5,” he said.
“At No 7 it’s the same role, you probably are not so much in the heat of the game, the nicest part is you can run more with the ball and see more of your face on TV.
“But the worst part is you can’t go around the ruck to make the tackles, you have to stay there.”