Lions hopeful their misfiring lineout will finally fire against Cardiff

The Lions have been hard at work trying to fix their lineout woes that have plagued their game over the past couple of months, ahead of their United Rugby Championship clash against Cardiff on Sunday.

While their scrum has been firing on all cylinders, their lineout has been completely misfiring that has put them under pressure on defence and has stopped them from building momentum when on attack.

A host of injuries to senior locks has played a big part in the struggles, while the guys that have stepped in, often flankers without too much experience, just haven’t been able to adapt to the position.

‘Composure’

“We have struggled with a couple of injuries, especially with our lineout callers with Pieter Jansen van Vuren and Reinhard Nothnagel out, so I take my hat off for Ruben Schoeman who is a four lock but has stepped into that role and done well making the calls,” said Lions forwards coach Albert van den Berg.

“But the biggest problem we have found over the last few games in losing our ball at the lineout has been from our own mistakes. We just haven’t had that composure of making sure that everyone knows what we want to do and it ends up becoming very scrappy, almost like we are panicking.

“They are basic mistakes, it’s either the lift, or the jump, or the catch, or the throw. So it’s a combination of things that go wrong and it is something that has been hampering us. But we have addressed it and have looked at the videos.

“So we have been working hard on that, making sure everyone is on the same page and understands what we want. Just to win the ball is the most important thing and then build from there.”

Reinhard Nothnagel

With a couple of players making their way back from injury, including Nothnagel, the Lions are set to receive a nice boost ahead of the Cardiff clash and they will be hoping that an improved performance in the lineout will give them the spark to pick up a much needed win.

“Reinhard Nothnagel is back. He started training last week and should be available to be picked against Cardiff this weekend. So if all goes well and we are happy with how he comes through training he will probably start at lock for us,” said Van den Berg.

“It’s really good to have him back. I think he brings a lot of experience as a caller and it also takes pressure off Ruben Schoeman from calling so he can get back to doing the donkey work as the hard man that he is.”