Ivan van Rooyen’s Lions roared into their first-ever URC quarter-final.
After losing narrowly to Munster in the final regular-season league game of the United Rugby Championship, the Lions travelled directly up the road from Limerick to Dublin — where they have been granted plenty of time to plot a massive knockout ambush on Leinster in their quarter-final clash on Saturday.
Leinster, of course, will have been giving the Lions scarcely a second's thought over the past week because they had a much bigger fish to fry — namely, their gruelling Champions Cup final against Bordeaux-Bègles.
The structural reality that Leinster contested a major European final this past weekend, and must turn around a week later to navigate a sudden-death quarter-final, is widely viewed as a distinct disadvantage as physical and mental fatigue inevitably kick in.
However, the Lions will have absolutely none of that narrative — they are thoroughly relishing their underdog status as they cultivate a powerful team theme of “making history”, as their coaching staff have aptly put it.
