Smiling Nohamba admits silly ball-slap was 'bad ploy', but atones with fine Lions showing

A smiling Sanele Nohamba knows very well that he can count his lucky stars that the Lions managed to pull off a surprise URC victory over the Ospreys in Swansea this past weekend... and that he claimed the Man of the Match award to boot.

Because had those two things not transpired, it's eminently possible that one moment of brazen cheekiness could've seen his team go into this week's round of fixtures winless.

In the 52nd minute of a gutsy 28-27 victory, the hosts had a lineout close to halfway when the ball boy was in the process of handing the ball to hooker Dewi Lake, only for Nohamba to swoop in and knock the ball out of his hands.

Unsurprisingly, a needless penalty was awarded to the Ospreys, who kicked to touch and scored their fourth try from the resulting maul.

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"I was just trying to slow down the game," Nohamba said on Tuesday with a sheepish smile.

"It was a bad ploy from me. I'm probably going to get some stick from the coaches in our review session and rightly so. But yeah, actually there was nothing to it."

Sitting next to him was Jaque Fourie, who clearly still wasn't impressed before eventually allowing himself some form of a smile.

"Yeah, it's a tough one because it's a penalty kick into the corner and then five points come from it," said the Lions' defence coach.

"Like Sanele said, we've got a review later and we're probably going to smack him over the fingers for that."

Laughs aside, the 23-year-old Nohamba has made an impressive start to the new season after notably leaving the Sharks - who boast four class scrumhalves in Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Cameron Wright and forgotten Cheetah Zee Mkhabela - in search of more