There’s no Bok lineout crisis, assures Rassie

Cape Town - Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is confident that this past weekend's lineout issues will not develop into a crisis.

South Africa's lineout was in disarray in last Saturday’s 12-11 loss to England at Twickenham, with hooker Malcolm Marx having a torrid afternoon.

Four Springbok lineouts went astray, with Marx overthrowing at the back on two of those occasions.

“No, it’s not a crisis,” Erasmus said on Monday, as quoted by Netwerk24.

“It did cost us a victory against England, but I’m not worried that it will be a problem for our confidence."

Apart from Marx’s overthrows, Erasmus said England competed well on the other two lost balls and insisted that it was not a problem with their systems.

“I suspect that we lost a bit of rhythm over the last three weeks and it was also the case last year against Ireland,” Erasmus said, referring to the Boks’ 38-3 defeat in Dublin on the first match of last year’s year-end tour.

The Boks are in Paris this week preparing for a Test against France there on Saturday.

Kick-off is at 22:05 (SA time).