It’s win or bust for Lions against Munster, says van Rooyen

After losing to Leinster in their previous outing, it has become a win or bust situation for the Lions when they face Munster in a crunch United Rugby Championship showdown on Saturday, coach Ivan van Rooyen says.

With a URC quarterfinal berth and Champions Cup qualification on the line, both teams will leave everything out on the field at Thomond Park.

A resolute Van Rooyen says his team are fully focused on securing the win required to stay in the hunt for silverware.

“We see it as a must-win game,” he said. “Both us and Munster need the points to make sure that we go through. So we’re going to keep it up to us, and that’s our mindset.”

The Lions mentor said late errors had proved costly when his team slipped to a 31-7 defeat against Leinster in Dublin on Saturday. The loss saw the Lions tumble down the URC log standings from third to fifth.

“We showed some great character to fight back against Leinster,” he said. “Up to minute 68, we felt we had swung the momentum back into our favour. Unfortunately we made three defensive errors, which led to three tries.”

The Lions will be without forward Ruan Venter for the Munster clash after he flew back to SA for scans on a knee injury sustained in Dublin

“There were also moments we created where we just didn’t capitalise, and before you know it, the game is away from you. We had an opportunity there for us to maybe get lucky and do something special against Leinster.”

The Lions will be without forward Ruan Venter for the Munster clash after he flew back to SA for scans on a knee injury sustained in Dublin.

“He is quite uncomfortable, quite sore,” Van Rooyen said. “He flew back on Sunday to get home and get scans, and then we’ll see from that what the result is.”

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said he was pleased with the way his side closed out their victory over the Lions. He said they will now need to push on against the Ospreys to secure home advantage in the quarterfinals before turning their attention to the Champions Cup final against Bordeaux-Bègles.

“When the game against the Lions was at 14-7, which it was for a good chunk of time, it was a proper arm wrestle of a game,” he said.

“I thought the lads stuck at it well. We were pleased with the sort of strong defence during the period when the game was at 14-7 and very much in the balance.

“Lions were good at just keeping us pinned back in our end, and it was clever the way they played. So it was good to get a couple of tries at the end, lots of good bits of play from some of the bench guys, which is what you want.

“But, listen, it’s a win; it’s five points – that’s what you want. The Lions don’t get anything. As I said, they were ahead of us going into the weekend, so we’re ahead of them now.”