Firstly let me say this, The Saint is no Saint, and everything I say must be taken with a little laugh and a lot of patience….
Enough is enough, the Lions have messed up my whole Superbru season…how the hell am I supposed to predict exactly what margin they are going to lose by next week? For the uninformed, this my way of joking….
Naïve…as defined by a dictionary:
1. Lacking worldly experience and understanding
2. Showing or characterized by a lack of sophistication and critical judgment
3. Stresses absence of complexity, artifice, pretentiousness, or dissimulation\
Naïve…as defined by the Saint:
1. Dick Muir
2. The Lions Rugby Team
3. Lions Rugby Management
Before anybody rubishes my rant, I have to say that I’m not Anti-Lions, I am a concerned South African Rugby Supporter, and it hurt to see what I saw today!
It is time to say what has to be said. Today, the Lions were a disgrace to South African Rugby, and I cannot see one good reason why they shouldn’t be replaced by the Southern Kings in the 2011 version of Super Rugby, should they continue to deliver this kind of performance.
I have been badgered non-stop by a multitude of Lions supporters because of my stance on the Lions, even on this blog, people have left this web site completely because of an inability to accept reality.
Let me make it clear, not all Lions supporters are guilty of this, but those who are guilty, you know exactly who you are.
“All Out Running Rugby”, Dick Muir’s apparent blueprint for the Lions going forward, has to be the single most, uneducated, moronic and undeniably stupid stance ever taken by a coach in regard to a struggling team that he has just taken over.
Every week we hear the PR bullshit that all Lion supporters so desperately want to believe.
“Nah, the spirit in the camp has never been better.” or “I feel that we have definitely made progress.” or “You just wait and see.”
How can a team’s spirit remain true if they are humiliated weekend after weekend? How can you call anything progress, if your team hasn’t even mastered the two basic fundamentals of Rugby…namely attack and defense? What are we waiting to see, Loffie had supporters wait for years, and now Muir is just continuing the trend?
Defense is a personal thing, it is a one on one exercise which can be made more effective by involving a structured team approach. In this regard both the coach and the players are equally to blame. There is no structure to the Lions team, it seems that the players have no idea what to do 70% of the time, in fact, I doubt if any of the current players can even communicate without drooling on themselves. There is no effort, no commitment, and worst of all, no pride in the way that they conduct their approach to the game.
Muir seems to be the worst possible thing to have happened to the Lions, he has no pendant for structure, he apparently believes running can solve all problems and the coaching team he has assembled is inadequate, inexperienced and not in a position to turn fortunes around. The mere fact that Johan Ackerman played rugby for 100 years, doesn’t mean that he knows anything about coaching.
The Lions tight-5, albeit somewhat inexperienced, is a solid enough entity, yet they are man-handled week in and week out. Grown men, playing like pansies, the WP light 5 at their worst wouldn’t have stood for it…
The backs run around aimlessly, desperately trying to run everything from anywhere, unfortunately, they are not talented enough to get away with that approach for any length of time.
The mere fact that Muir is involved with the Springboks makes me so worried I am beside myself.
Yes, the players are not all up to Super 14 standard, but the Reds were in exactly the same position when this season started, but they went on to prove that you CAN slay giants, you just have to cut down the beanstalk first.
If Muir is reading this….. Dick, I used an analogy, it means you have to start at the beginning, do the basics right, teach them to pass and to tackle, those are your main problems.
There is absolutely no excuse for being pathetic, I don’t mind if the Lions lose, as long as they seem unhappy about it, and then try to change things around. Which is currently not happening!
If the Lions don’t start making work of their deficiencies, I would have no objection to the Kings claiming their place in 2011. Because it would be much more enjoyable seeing Cheecky Watson trying to explain a 100-point losing margin, instead of Cobus Grobbelaar stuttering out another ill-conceived PR Excuse.
I certainly hope you have read this Article carefully and do not jump to the unnesessary conclusion that this was an attempt to belittle the once proud Lions Rugby Union or their often still proud supporters.
I would like to know who the 14 people are who voted yes on the Rugby-Talk Lions Poll…
I bet you anything its a bunch of Lions supporters…
Hard words…. but I cannot critisize them… the truth is often hard to swallow!
Now if SuperBul or I said these words, there would be toys thrown around everywhere….
I put up a Poll, a couple of days ago to ask opinions whether the Lions are an improving team… and so far the vote is 14 YES votes (they have improved) and only 7 NO votes….
My vote went the NO route…. and I certainly do not think they are close to improving.
GBS
If you get some flack for the article I wouldn’t take it personally if you removed it. But in my honest opinion, those toys cannot be thrown far enough…
3@ Saint – Some of our best friends are in charge and/or blog at WTR, I certainly hope they are adult enough to accept this Article, I’m not going to remove it, it is fair comment.
So long as they understand that we are also frustrated about the Lions, they are a South African team after all, they will have to agree or at least understand where the Article comes from.
I hope this is a wake-up call for the Lions, I hope they improve, because they are currently flat on their faces on the ground….. if they have to further deteriorate, they will have to start digging!
Geluk aan die Lions met daardie 2 drieë !
Do they think we enjoy watching a fellow SA rugby team being humiliated?
Ofcourse not! We ALL want to see ALL the SA teams compete.
This joke hurts everyone at SA rugby, not just thise between the Jukskei and the Vaal.
It is completely unacceptable that the most populated and richest region in the country become the joke of S14.
Serious action is required here.
Marriage: the only sport in which the trapped animal has to buy the license
oops sorry
wrong thread!!
Sorry bout my ignorance, ouens but who or what is WTR?
Fender – wetalkrugby.com, our sister website.
Thanks Snoek
bdb – Geluk met jou 3000 posts. 2990 van hulle was bloubul propoganda, maar geluk in elk geval. 😆
Hoeveel posts het jy al op WTR? 🙄
Fender, are you feeling confident for a win against the Canes? I think it will be tough game for the Stormers, and if they win, i see them going far this season.
#14 Snoek
You’re right – it will be tuff. The Canes have basicaly got their best 22 available (compared to the Cheetahs game last week), will be in foul mood ’cause they would’ve marked the Cheetahs game doen as a win prior to the tour.
So, confident – no, worried – yes!
So, WTR is where all the ouens like Ed, Willa etc are hanging out these days.
Was there some kinda broedertwis while I was away, or wot?
But WTR is a pure Lions website… can not be very lekka there with Lions getting their @rses handed to them every week?
Dick is used to class, I mean, he coached the Sharks, he probably thought turning the Lions around would be as easy…..
My advice to the Lions….Move to a nicer part of Jo’burg, maybe you’ll be able to get class players to join, and not just has-beens and never-will’s.
If they stay where they are, good idea would be to close shop now….I can’t see anyone fixing them, many have tried, all have failed yet those who tried seem to have success elsewhere.
The Lions problems are much deeper than the coach and players. Start with a clean canvas.
saint you around?
The guys from WTR will be wise to jump ship now, they’ll go down with the Lions.
If I was one of the Lions’ sponsors, I’d cut my losses immediately. They’re just not getting anywhere, stuck in neutral and trying to fight an uphill battle.
Guys lets slow down a bit
We are being very negative here and very emotional, right now the Lions supporters are sad as is without us being snidy in remarks that are made.
We are not a site for one brand only and should try to take others feelings to heart.
Saint personally I feel for now lets remove the article till Rudi has time to check through and maybe change a few things.
I have discussed this with him telephonically and our concerns are the anti team centiments are becoming an issue.
Lets maybe re-write slightly with more on how to fix the problems then attack
The fact that your super bru is in tatters is not the Lions fault , thats part of the guessing game mate
I know its a disgrace but at the same time the union has just gone through huge problems and will prolly go through more
But showing anti Lions centiments as harsh as this is not going to do ant favours
guys dick muir is human and not god
this lions have gone throuogh major problems as we know
do we now expect them to suddenlly be world beaters?
Let it be known though (before I’m accused of anti-Lions sentiment) I realy do feel for the Lions supporters, todays loss was hard on SA, so I bet the Lions supporters are feeling gutted.
Like most, I also thought Dick would turn things around, but the damage done to the Lions over the years will take more than just one season with Dick to be turned around.
I agree Sharky_forever. Each team goes through a bad patch and the Lions are having a torrid time at the moment. The Bulls also had their bad patch when Heyenke first took over and they also had losses for a few seasons before becoming a good team. The Stormers has taken flack and they are playing better but there is a still a huge amount of work to be done. The Cheetahs have not performed for a long time either. So I feel for the Lions supporters. Good luck with your side tomorrow – I hope they can pull it off.
FireStraeuli you are anti Lion hahaha 🙂
Sharky I am here…
BTW…the Superbru thing was only a joke, I always add some humour to my pieces…
I realize that we are not a site for one brand only, and I would like to add to that, that we are also a site that has to talk the truth.
I am in no way against the lions, let the record show, that I have always supported the Lions if they are not playing my Stormers. It is exactly this reason that has peeved me off, I always backed them, but they seem not to care anymore. The union is in tatters, and sitting quietly by and allowing them to think that development is taking place, and that the team is getting better, is not helping anyone.
If the Sharks don’t make a turn-around tomorrow, they will receive the same, if the Stormers were in the same position, I promise you, I would have called a spade a spade as well.
I respect your judgement on all matters rugby, in fact yours is one of the few posts that I take seriously, if after my explanation you still feel the same, I will remove the article. But I refuse to edit it and place it again, if it goes down, it stays down.
25 – Karen,
Only sometimes though, but even I feel bad for them. 🙂
The biggest problem is, it’s almost impossible to take one positive out of this game…they were horrible, disjointed. They seem to have their heads back in SA already. They resemble the Tjietas on tour, they seem to be wishing it was over.
This is a low in SA rugby and desperate changes needs to be made at the Lions.
#22
I never expected them to be world beaters, as my pre-season article has shown, but I expected more of a trying effort.
Dick isn’t even thinking of employing alternate strategies…it’s like a child with hot chocolate, he knows he shouldn’t, but he keeps on burning not learning…
I always found it fascinating that a black American can refer to himself, or other black Americans as ‘nigga’s’, but white Americans cannot do this for fear of being racist.
In the same way I find it funny how we try and justify ourselves on blogs like this to somehow, give our opinions more credibility by ending of a post to the effect of: “And I am not even a ‘so-and-so’ supporter” or “And I am a ‘so-and-so’ supporter”.
We either say it to be apathetic or apologetic, or to prove that our intentions are noble.
So it brings me to something I have wondered about for a long time now…
If Saint was a Lions supporter, would this post have been acceptable?
Would other Lions supporters actually have latched onto this and agreed with him and added their views to support, and even expand on this view?
My guess is yes.
For a long time, and even now people did not know who I support, and I found that refreshing, because my comments would be just that, a comment.
I would like to believe we all support rugby first, but then, I have been wrong in the past.
#29
Your keeping your cards close to your chest? What is your opinion of the article am I a Saint or a sinner?
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