Head coach Ivan van Rooyen must rally his troops ahead their URC quarter-final against Leinster on Saturday night.
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It is probably only those diehards who brave Ellis Park for Lions home games who believe their team will play the Stormers in a URC semi-final in Cape Town on June 6, should the latter beat Cardiff this weekend in the URC quarter-finals.
Those same Lions fans might also reckon there is a fair chance Cardiff could win, which would mean the minor miracle of the Lions hosting a semi-final in Johannesburg.
All of this, of course, depends on the Lions producing one of rugby’s great modern upsets by toppling Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday (9pm kick-off).
Few can see that happening, especially given the existential crisis rocking the Dubliners after they were not so much put to the sword but positively guillotined by Bordeaux in last week’s Champions Cup final in London.
The knives are out in Ireland after that Leinster humiliation, and director of rugby Leo Cullen — who seemed to be in an impregnable position a year ago — is now firmly under the blowtorch.
So too is assistant coach Jacques Nienaber, the South African who appears to earn little praise when Leinster win, yet becomes the immediate scapegoat when they lose.
It has been fascinating to hear former Ireland players stating that Nienaber’s blitz defensive system is compromising the team’s natural attack, while former Springboks contend that the Irishmen simply do not inject enough raw physicality into Nienaber’s strategy for it to work as effectively as it does for the Boks.
While a battered Leinster squad were returning from their European heartbreak, the Lions had their feet up in Dublin, resting and plotting. They have to believe they have a deadly ambush in store for the host nation's heavyweights.
The Lions are hardly short of intelligence on Leinster; they played them in Dublin only a few weeks ago. They lost 31-7 on that occasion, but for large stretches of the game, they gave as good as they got. Coach Ivan van Rooyen and his lieutenants have had plenty of time to digest their wrongdoings and fine-tune a game plan to shock the tournament favourites.
It is a pity, though, that they have lost two key players in immaculate scrum-half Morne van den Berg and bruising flanker Ruan Venter. Venter is exactly the type of enforcer who could have put Leinster's soft underbelly under pressure, much like the giant Bordeaux loose forwards did.
Still, the Lions welcome back captain Francke Horne and the brutal centre Henco van Wyk from injury, so they will be immensely grateful for that injection of star power.
In the Leinster camp, there have been all the right noises about restoring pride in the jersey, but talking is one thing; actually bouncing back from a catastrophic, soul-crushing performance is quite another. We might well find that Leinster’s confidence and morale have taken a mortal blow.
Their fans seem to think so — the word from Dublin is that disappointed supporters are staying away in their droves, and the Aviva will not be the heaving, intimidating bastion it typically is.
All things considered, I reckon those diehard Lions fans might be onto something, provided their team takes a cue from Bordeaux and adopts a fearless approach of "attack to win".
The Lions have to play the expansive, front-foot rugby that got them into a first-ever URC quarter-final. Now is not the time to be shrinking violets. If their battle cry is "fortune favours the brave", this game will be a lot closer than the bookies think.
Teams for Dublin:
Lions
15 Quan Horn, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Richard Kriel, 11 Erich Cronjé, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Nico Steyn, 8 Francke Horn (capt), 7 Batho Hlekani, 6 Siba Mahashe, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Reinhard Nothnagel, 3 Sebastian Lombard, 2 PJ Botha, 1 SJ Kotze.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Eddie Davids, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Siba Qoma, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Rynhardt Jonker, 23 Haashim Pead.
Leinster
15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Jimmy O’Brien, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jamie Osborne, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Scott Penny, 6 Max Deegan, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter.
Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Alex Usanov, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Diarmuid Mangan, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Robbie Henshaw.