Nothnagel realises childhood dream with Lions captaincy

Rising Lions lock talent Reinhard Nothnagel realised a childhood dream last weekend when he captained his side to an impressive win over United Rugby Championship heavyweights Edinburgh.

The 24-year-old Nothnagel was parachuted into the captaincy role unexpectedly after Burger Odendaal was a close Covid contact in the build-up, so was unavailable for the game and regular captain Jaco Kriel is out with a long term injury.

Nothnagel was born in Krugersdorp and attended Monument High, and then worked his way through the Lions age group teams until finally making his senior debut in 2018.

He has since established himself as the team’s frontline number five and has been in terrific form since coming back from injury which has coincided with the Lions’ brilliant four match winning run.

‘Local guy’

Against Edinburgh this past weekend Nothnagel was a cool head and marshalled his troops well, as they picked up a second win over a top five ranked side in the past three weeks.

“To be captain is any player’s dream from childhood. Especially for a local guy like myself who has been here my whole life,” said Nothnagel.

“To take over from Burger (Odendaal) was unexpected to be honest. But credit to the guys that played with me, they really made it easy for me.

“It’s not just myself making the calls on the field. Guys like (flyhalf) Jordan (Hendrikse) contribute towards the calls, which helped me a lot. So it’s a team effort, it’s not just the captain making the clock tick.”

Nothnagel’s return from injury has also sparked a turnaround in the form of the Lions lineout, which had been struggling immensely during an injury crisis that coincided with their five match losing run at the start of the year.

Lineout growth

The lineout is now firing on all cylinders and showed that against Edinburgh as they won nine out of 10 lineouts on their own throw, while also stealing a number of the visitors’ lineouts.

“I have to give credit to our lineout coach, coach Albert (van den Berg). We go into a lot of detail analysing other teams. So it shows our growth. If we had played this game a few months ago we would have lost a couple of balls.

“But because we understand each other more in the lineout, we know what to do and who’s doing what and that helps us a lot. We also have a lot of confidence now.

“If you don’t have confidence in the lineout and the slightest bit of doubt of whether you will win the ball you probably won’t. So that has made a big difference with the guys going into the lineout with that confidence that we know we can win the ball on our own throw and the opposition’s.”

The Lions are next in action in the URC this Saturday when they take on the Sharks in Durban.