The Lions will attempt to extend their unbeaten run to five games and in the process hand the Irish giants their first defeat of the season, but they also don’t want to put too much pressure on themselves.

It will be tough for the team from Johannesburg but they did beat Leinster earlier in the year with a 44-12 victory at Ellis Park. That said, it’s a different Leinster team, albeit it remains to be seen if they will field their Irish internationals as there is a focus on the upcoming Test break.

It is almost incredible to think that every single player in the Lions team will be playing at the old Landsdowne Road for the first time this weekend.

While it will be a big day for the Lions, the Springbok winger Edwill van der Merwe, said they must just focus on the job.

“It's a massive week for Lions rugby in general, and we happen to be number two on the log so it’s number one and number two this weekend so it’s going to be massive,” said Van der Merwe who scored a try against Zebre.“But we’re just going to enjoy it and coach Cash has been reminding us that we don’t need to make the occasion bigger than it needs to be.

‘We want to measure ourselves against the best’

“Leinster is one of the top sides in the world and we want to measure ourselves against the best, but yes we are very excited.

“I think it’s the first time for all of us playing at Aviva Stadium which is an iconic stadium as well so I don’t think there’ll be extra motivation needed for the match this weekend.”

Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash in Dublin kicks off at 18:15.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg/mvh