Ireland 'the best team in the world' admits South African coach

The Lions are setting their sights on the ‘best team in the world’ as they get ready to head to Dublin to face the mighty Leinster in Round Six of the United Rugby Championship.

This will be the Lions’ biggest test in the competition thus far but they head into that clash second in the standings and know this will be their best possible opportunity ever to beat Jacques Nienaber’s charges in Dublin.

There’s little doubt who the best team in the URC is through five rounds.

Leinster made that perfectly clear in the first 15 minutes of its historic match against Munster in Round 3.

Leinster, arguably the best European club in the sport for the last four years, and certainly the best to have not won a major championship in that time period, seems to be on a warpath in 2024-2025.

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen revealed he has been plotting his game plan for a while, relishing the thought of taking on the Irish giants after two victories on tour.

That time is here and Van Rooyen says his side will in all likelihood face the full might of Leinster’s best this weekend, something they have not done in the past.

“We are under no illusion that it is probably 90% of the best team in the world currently, with Ireland ranked No. 1, so we know where Ireland’s Test ranking is,” Van Rooyen candidly stated after his team’s victory over Zebre on Saturday.

“Leinster is ranked No. 1 in the world. So we are under no illusion that it is going to be tough, but we are excited to see how and where we can push them.

“To see if we can push them and set us apart from where we were last year.

“We will start selling that picture to the team soon,” he stated with a wry smile.

The coach was evidently very pleased with how results have gone in their favour up to now.

“It’s important to keep on holding on to what has been working for us.

“It is going to be an exciting clash next weekend.

“It is probably the first time, I am assuming, that we will play Leinster’s real A-team and we are playing at Aviva which we know how proud they are there,” Van Rooyen said.

“It is a big week for us.

“[We’ve played] four really different games in four different conditions and with four different ways and styles.

“I think Zebre played us really well, especially in the last 20 minutes, when they didn’t really play any rugby, they just kicked back to us finding grass.

“So there’s some nice lessons to learn for us. We feel there is growth internally which is good,” the coach explained.

But the challenges will take a humongous leap this week as they have to navigate facing one of the lower teams [Zebre] one week and then arguably the best in the world thereafter.

“Next week will be a totally different challenge for us, different beast, different tempo, different running options, rushed defence because Jacques [Nienaber] is there.

“They have been going well so [it’s] a totally different challenge for us which is exciting.

“If you offered me eight points pre-tour, I probably would’ve taken it.

“We knew the first two games were going to be tough. The Dragons are a tough team, and the way they play at home, disrupting breakdowns, spoiling as much as they can – it’s tough to beat them there.

“And Zebre in these conditions – all the x-factor went out the game, it became an arm wrestle and kicking game.

“So it has been a big character lesson for us, a lot of rugby lessons for us so if we keep on growing, anything is possible next week.”