Ninety-Three and Eighty-Three

THE RECORD. Scrums 113 won, 8 lost — 93 per cent. Lineouts 244 won, 49 lost — 83 per cent, with 9 steals.

THE READING. The scrum was a strength. The lineout was adequate and vulnerable. Forty-nine lost lineouts is forty-nine attacking platforms surrendered.

THE QUESTION. Against Toulouse, Saracens and an Exeter maul, does 83 per cent hold?

THE SCRUM. Won 113, lost 8. A success rate of 93 per cent across the season, with 40 scrum offences conceded. That is a strong return and it reflects directly on Julian Redelinghuys's work with the front row and on a prop group that runs from Juan Schoeman's experience to Heiko Pohlmann's 128 kilograms.

THE LINEOUT. Won 244, lost 49. A success rate of 83 per cent, with 9 steals and only 5 lineout offences conceded all season — among the lowest in the competition.

EIGHTY-THREE PER CENT IS THE PROBLEM. Forty-nine lost lineouts across a season is forty-nine attacking platforms surrendered, many of them in the opposition twenty-two where a lineout is the difference between a try and nothing. The best sides in the URC operated in the low nineties. Section Paloise led European club rugby on 94 per cent.

NINE STEALS. A low number, and it belongs beside the 83 per cent. A lineout that neither secures its own ball reliably nor disrupts the opposition's is a set piece doing one job out of two.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW. Toulouse, Saracens and La Rochelle all build from the set piece and all will target an 83 per cent lineout. Exeter Chiefs have made a decade out of the driving maul. Of everything in this statistical record, the lineout is the number most likely to decide whether the Lions' first Champions Cup campaign is competitive.

THE DISCIPLINE FOOTNOTE. Five lineout offences and 167 penalties conceded — the fewest in the URC — say this is a technically disciplined pack. The lineout issue is one of accuracy, not of ill-discipline.