Lions on alert for Warriors tricks

Apart from expecting charging opponents with fire in their collective belly, the Lions are in full anticipation of a Glasgow Warriors team desperate to outfox them on Saturday.

As expected, the Lions will be without loose forward Emmanuel Tshituka in their Challenge Cup quarterfinal in Glasgow on Saturday.

The flank was handed a three-week ban for running into an opponent while leading with the elbow in the weekend’s last 16 win against Racing 92 at Ellis Park.

The vastly experienced Jaco Kriel has, however, been included in their touring group.

Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie knows Warriors coach Franco Smith as a wily tactical operator, and will avoid being duped into what appears obvious.

“We know Franco is an interesting character and we know he is going to come with a few trick plays.

“We need discipline to stay in our structure and put pressure on them the whole time,” Fourie said.

Though the Warriors will present them a vastly different challenge, Fourie cautioned against amending the Lions’ playbook of recent weeks.

To be fair, it has yielded a string of positive results with four straight wins in European competition.

“We can’t shy away from our stuff that has worked for us the past four, five weeks.

“We just need to do them better,” the former Bok centre said.

While both sides possess fine attacking prowess, Fourie knows it is the Lions’ defence that will be under greater scrutiny.

“Defence is important, especially in knockout phases. It wins matches.

“Glasgow want to run with the ball and take you wide, but we need to get off the line and put their playmakers under pressure, win the ball back and score tries.

“We stick to our structures and our discipline needs to be sharp.

“If they want to run from their own half and you force turnovers, they are going to have to rethink their strategy.

“They are going to play deeper or go into a kicking game. That will play into our hands.

“We still need to stop them,” he said.

Both teams will take good recent form into the match.

The Lions emerged from a slump to win their last four matches in European competition, including last weekend’s impressive 51-28 beating of Racing 92 in their round of 16 Challenge Cup clash at Ellis Park.

It has been quite a turnaround for the embattled franchise.

There had been reports of much turmoil in the Lions camp but their results suggest the team has been galvanised by the off-field upheaval.

“That helped us in a positive way,” Fourie said.

“I don’t look too much at the off-field stuff. Our focus is to work on the players.

“We rallied and decided we can go one way or stand together and start performing.

“The week before playing Glasgow [in February] we said we would take off the shackles because we’ve got nothing to lose.

“The guys are playing with much more freedom and are enjoying themselves.”

Sanele Nohamba, on the same subject, said: “For us the main thing remained the main thing and that was to play rugby — for us to play and the coaches to coach.

“The people sorted out what needed to be sorted out behind closed doors.