VIDEO: Lions coaches give some 'tough love' after Euro implosion
Today at 07:02 AM
The Lions and Dragons go into a straight Euro 'shoot-out' when they meet in a Challenge Cup Round Four encounter at Ellis Park on Saturday.
It is going to be an intense build-up this week for a Lions team desperate to end an alarming losing streak.
* Explainer: The four highest-ranked teams in each pool and the fifth-ranked teams from each of the four Champions Cup pools will qualify for the Challenge Cup Round of 16. All teams will thereafter be ranked in descending order based firstly on their ranking in their pool and subsequently on the number of match points they have accumulated, to create an overall ranking from One to 16.
Section Paloise and Ospreys do battle on Saturday - equal on 10 points in Pool Two after both winning their Round Three games against Dragons and Falcons respectively.
Pool Two is then concluded as Lions host Dragons, also equal on points and both losing out in Round Three, in a head-to-head for the final qualification spot.
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The Lions lost to Ospreys (14-30) and Montpellier (5-28) in Challenge Cup away games, and beat Section Paloise (43-35) at Ellis Park.
Being back at home - beating Edinburgh and Ulster in their only other appearances at The Den this season - they hope to reverse the alarming trend of losses.
Significantly, they beat the Dragons 23-19 in a United Rugby Championship match at Rodney Parade in Newport back in mid-October.
"We owe the fans a much better performance than last Saturday's [implosion]," Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse said.
With no major injuries, the Lions will look to find their mojo by qualifying for the Round of 16.
"We made it tough for ourselves," the forwards coach, Pieterse, said of last week's Round Three loss in France.
"We shot ourselves in the foot, but we won't give up the fight."
(WATCH as the Lions reveal the tough review they went through after yet another loss in Europe.....)
He said the players are working hard, especially after the 'brutally honest' review they had on Tuesday.
Flank Izan Esterhuizen said the team review was not a pleasant place.
"We deserved tough love we got from the coaches after our performance at the weekend," Esterhuizen said, adding that there was some brutal honesty in the team meeting on Tuesday.
"That [the loss to Montpellier] was not up to our standards.
"We need to pull together and in training, I can see that everyone is hungry, despite all the travelling we have done.
"We're motivating each other, there is a will to win and our mindset is that we will win this weekend."
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