Lions looking forward to returning home, but first they must take on Glasgow Warriors

The Lions are emotionally spent and looking forward to finally returning home to be with their families, following their United Rugby Championship (URC) tour match against Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun Stadium in Scotland on Friday night (9.45pm).

The players and management have had to deal with the tragic passing of teammate Hyron Andrews at the start of the tour, before their Champions Cup match against La Rochelle in France two weeks ago.

They chose to honour Andrews by playing that game in his memory, and then immediately set off on a two-game URC tour of Scotland, against the two unbeaten in-form host teams, Edinburgh last weekend and Glasgow on Friday.

After losing to Edinburgh last weekend, the Lions now face just as difficult a task, against a team who have won three and drawn one of their four matches this campaign, and assistant Lions coach Wessel Roux says they are preparing for them as best they can.

“We knew it was going to be difficult to recover after the La Rochelle week and what happened there. And we knew that Edinburgh was going to be really difficult in terms of focus,” said Roux this week.

“It felt like a perfect storm. A lot of different factors just kind of met, and it created this really difficult place to survive, to think, to thrive and to play rugby.

“Everybody has reacted towards the tragedy in a different way. Our training and preparations have been good. We’ve tried to really focus on what the job is and how to go forward. But it’s madness to think that we can forget about something that happened to us about 10 days ago. That’s impossible.”

Lions struggles

Some of the Lions’ struggles against Edinburgh came from cold and wet conditions that forced them to play a different game plan than what they are known for when on the Highveld, and Roux said that they were expecting more of the same weather against Glasgow.

“We are expecting quite a lot of rain and wind. It is also quite cold here as well. But it’s interesting weather … we had a training session earlier and it was wet and cold, but when we got on the bus and came back to the hotel the sun came out,” explained Roux.

“So it changes regularly every day. Obviously we have prepared for difficult conditions and we will play the game how the weather allows us.

“They’re (Glasgow) a really good side. Most of them are international players, really well coached by Franco (Smith), and they have a real attacking mindset with amazing skills in the wet. Their set-piece is also good, and their attacking play is good.

“They are really doing well at the moment. Their past success speaks for itself. It’s a real quality side, with a lot of Scottish (international) players.”