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.
59 – Sorry Hello Karen. How you? You looking forward to seeing your Stormers tomorrow? Should be a cracker that game.
Lions looked like a under 15b team today. Glad I’m a Bulls supporter.
57: Hallo Puma, daar is ‘n ou by WTR wat se naam ook Puma is !
59: moet nou net nie die ref met die bottels begin gooi as die Canes wen nie !
Hahaha it’s okay Puma. I am always good and you? I am looking forward to going to Newlands to watch my team – am nervous but hey I always go their with high hopes and if they play like they should they can take it with points to spare.
Karen I am looking forward to seeing Sharks play, but am nervous about that game. Hope we can at long last pick up a win. Just think the Brumbies are a really good team and hard to beat on their turf.
bdb daar is ‘n ou wat by WTR blog met die naam bdb 😉
Nee ek gaan die JC weg hou van Steve Walsh – anders wil hy alles he 🙂
64 – Karen, Stormers are a very good team this year. They should beat the Canes. Canes will be hurting though after that loss last week but think Stormers should still take it. Now they better as all the teams I went for on my bru pool have lost 🙁 I must be sitting on the bottom now.
Puma,
Ja, gonna be a tough one tomorrow, as long as we’ve built on the Tahs game, we’ll be golden.
They must just keep the intensity high, and turn on the pressure.
Go Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars!!!!!!!!!
Well I hope they win although I did back the Brumbies on superbru. Sharks need to turn their game around sometime. Hopefully their dissipline is not as crappy as the last few games – they need to play the game and concentrate on that and not on other things
68
and
Go ShaaaaaaaaaaaaaarKs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fires, Come let us talk about our team tomorrow. How you see them doing?
67 – The Stormers are performing better but they are not there yet. That is what worries me about the Canes and then there will be quite a lot of support for them at Newlands as well (the usual crowd). I am in the middle of bru pool.
70 – Fires, Remember we have a novice ref again and Marks is on the line??????????? Hope the ref has a good game tomorrow and our Sharks too.
62: dink jy jou span staan ‘n kans more ?
GO Sharks 🙂
GO STORMERSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Really wish we had Deysel to start though. Really hate to see such a talented player on the bench. I would have started him at 6 way before Botes.
Nee bdb jou span staan nie ‘n kans nie – hulle gaan die game gooi 🙂
Okay I am off. Catch up tomorrow.
Cheers all.
GO SHARKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSS
GO STORMERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
GO BULLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Now if those 3 can win it will be a good Saffa weekend.
Cheers Puma. Enjoy and good luck for your team.
I am also out of here.
GO STORMERSSSSSSSSSSS
Go the Warriors. I have them on my bru for the crici.
May be back later. Otherwise catch up with you all tomorrow.
Karen enjoy yourself at Newlands. The weather there looks great. Great here too. Summer just wont end 😉
Out of here now.
77: never underestimate the ‘enemy’.
I came from the Kruger just now did not read everything but lets face it what do we want. Just we want the Lions to perform, you must be cruel to be kind or something like that. Look we dont want to chase people away, but the truth must be told. We can not shy away that the Lions are piss poor at the moment.
I would leave this article just as it is, we will comment on this for days and all view will come out. We cant muzzle it, let it out, let it bleed, and then the healing will begin.
If some Lions take acception , they will see light in the next few days, when the emotions die off.
I have to agree with everything that The Saint says in this article. He is only being true and honest. At the moment the Lions are shit, and so are their coaches. Fact! Live with it.
Super, You watching the crici?
Jeepers did you see Bouch there? got four 6’s in that last over and one run giving him 25 runs plus the other batsman got one run. So 26 off that over.
Boucher what a batsman to have in your side, especially in this type of crici.
So far see the D. Chargers not doing to bad either in the IPl.
Sorry for posting a crici post here but no cric thread up.
Anybody watching the Standard Bank Final, Boucher made 27 off 8 balls, Warriors scored like the Waratahs this morning, 186/2 in 20 overs.
Dont think the Lions like any team that starts with a W
AC Gilchrist c Tiwary b Hodge 54 (35b 3×4 3×6) SR: 154.28
Puma just go ahead with the cricket, its to late to put a cric thread up now.
Helloooooooooooo
I read the Article so quickly this afternoon before I had to dash off to Midrand and clients…..
I will now read through it slowly, see where perceptions might get hurt or where a hasty pre-judgment was made, then judge.
Bottom line though is, the truth must be told, and each Author has his opinion. Discussion must be fair but bold…. and we need’nt take each other too personally on the issue.
Let’s take a few cases in point, 10 years ago when the Bulls were kak, we were told exactly that, we had to start from scratch and fix it…. and it worked.
During the last few years we all told the WP / Stormers that their tight five was a “Light Five”…. they had to take it and fix the situation, which they duly did!
This season we have been bashing the Sharks about their backline’s impotency and the general lack of dicipline of the players, including the Dom Doctor and The Mental Patient…. they have patiently taken it and suggested ways to turn the corner.
The Lions are in the same boat, they must be able to take critisism and they simply HAVE TO realise that there are rampant problems at their beloved Union and the Team… and ways and means must be suggested to stop the rot.
Let me go read…. I’ll be back……
I will be very surprised if opinions like this is censored.
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