Ross Roche

By Ross Roche

Senior sports writer


In-form Nohamba hoping to help Lions beat ‘quality side’ Glasgow

The Champions Cup quarterfinal could be thrilling with two in-form teams going head to head.


In-form Lions scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba is hoping to continue his impressive recent showings and help them upset home favourites Glasgow Warriors in their Challenge Cup quarterfinal in Scotland on Saturday night.

Nohamba has been in scintillating form of late and was in great nick in helping the Lions thump French giants Racing 92 51-28 in their last 16 clash last weekend, contributing 18 points himself through five conversions, a penalty and a try.

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Nohamba was humble as ever, however, choosing to rather heap praise on his team mates and coaches in sparking his golden run.

“For me personally it has just been the backing of the group. We help each other a lot during training, and also the backing of the coaches as well. It gives us as players a lot of confidence to go onto the field and play well,” he said.

“So it is credit to the guys around me, helping me out on the daily and the backing of the coaches that has given me confidence to go out and put in good performances on the weekend.”

Thrilling quarterfinal

The quarterfinal could turn out to be a thrilling one with two in-form teams going head-to-head to make it to the semifinals of the competition.

The Lions are on a four-game winning streak, which started with a United Rugby Championship win over Glasgow in late February, but this weekend’s hosts were without their internationals for that match as they were on Six Nations duty.

They have since picked up three straight wins, including a massive 73-33 win over the Dragons in the last 16 last weekend, and the Lions know that if they make any mistakes they will be punished.

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“They are a quality side and have shown that over the past couple of weeks. They are an exciting team that likes to throw the ball around. We just need to front up physically and expect anything,” said Nohamba.

“They have a really solid balance between a good kicking and running game, so we have to be ready for that and as long as we work for each other we should be all good.

“Knockout rugby is about staying completely focused for 80 minutes. You can’t switch off at all. That one or two seconds you switch off that’s when a team will take their opportunity. So you can’t afford any slip in concentration.”

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