Lions defence coach Jaque Fourie believes a setback in Sanele Nohamba’s personal life has been responsible for his lapse in form but that a return to his old self is imminent.
Nohamba was irrepressible last season and his lively play at both scrumhalf and flyhalf earned him a call-up to a Springbok alignment camp, and the URC Player of the Year Award. But in the current URC he has lost his spark and has been benched behind Morne van den Berg in the scrumhalf stakes while at flyhalf Kade Wolhuter and Sam Francis have been preferred.
“We all know the calibre of player Sanele Nohamba is,” Fourie said yesterday.
“Since his father passed away, it’s been a difficult time for him. We can all see with the way he has been on the field that he is not currently playing like the Sanele from last season.”
Last season, Nohamba started nearly all of the Lions’ matches and scored 135 points, including some spectacular solo tries.
“We have to pick the best team every week. Those are the standards we set,” Fourie explained. “He has been going through a very difficult time, we believe he can get through it and come out stronger in the end.
“The games that he has played, he hasn’t met our standards,” Fourie said with honesty. “We have plenty of guys pushing for positions, and we want to pick the best quality Fifteen for every match. He needs to get back to the old Sanele we know is there.”
The Lions travel to the Stormers on Saturday on the back of a morale-boosting defeat of Pau at Ellis Park. They needed that win after a run of three losses. Fourie says his team must kick on now and pile more misery on a Stormers side that has suffered a miserable slump.
The last few weeks have been disappointing with the amount of tries we have conceded against Leinster, Munster, Ospreys and Pau,” he said.
“Individual errors have cost us, especially our discipline. If you give the opposition penalty opportunities, they are going to kick for the corner and maul. It has been very disappointing, but this week we want to get back to how we started the season with a solid defence.
“It was important to get back to the Lions’ way with a win against Pau, we don’t have any excuses for our losses in the previous couple of weeks.
“We are not going to stray from the way we want to play. We will run with the ball and play in the right areas of the field; nothing is going to change for us. Last year when we played against the Stormers there were glimpses of what we want to show in Cape Town on Saturday.” | Independent Media Sport