Head coach says his side were far from perfect but that the team has become ‘battle-hardened’ after hectic schedule
“We’re in a final, lads. I said to the group in the week, 25 days ago, we were paranoid about European qualification. Now we are in a semi, now we are in a final.
“This group don’t give in and we have come through some fires in the last few weeks,” said Rowntree. “We go to Cape Town and it will be our sixth away game on the bounce, and that’s when we are finding out about people. We are tough, battle-hardened, so I was never hopeless. This team don’t go away.”
Leo Cullen admitted that his team lacked cohesion after they made another seven changes to their starting XV from the quarter-final win over the Sharks. “There’s two teams fighting right to the very end, they nail their opportunity at the death and we don’t get another chance. We were very, very close to winning a semi-final. Unfortunately, not today.
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