Lions taking baby steps
5 Jun 2006
Lions coach Eugene Eloff was pleased with his side’s thrashing of the Pumas on Saturday, but admits they still have a mountain to climb ahead of the Currie Cup.
“We’re not getting too excited yet,” Eloff told keo.co.za. “We’re just taking small steps at the moment. The scoreboard means nothing.”
The Lions gave the men from Witbank a sound 38-0 hiding at Ellis Park. Their defence in particular was something that Eloff was happy with.
“The fact that they didn’t get over our line once says a lot. But we still have plenty to work on.”
The areas of the Lions game of which Eloff speaks are predominately the set pieces and the basic skills. “We need to work on our phase play and the securing of possession,” he said.
Standout players for the Lions team included the Rose brothers, Super 14 flyhalf Earl and newcomer Jody, who both troubled the Pumas on attack.
“I am very excited with the young talent coming through,” said Eloff. “We are looking forward to the start of the season where we will definitely be looking to up our game.”
By Jon Cardinelli
29 Comments
5 Jun 2006, 10:35 am
Morning JC…
5 Jun 2006, 10:36 am
lets hope the Lions can do well in this seasons CC.
5 Jun 2006, 10:36 am
Lions to win CC
5 Jun 2006, 10:39 am
redcard, too early to be drinking so early mate. As long as jorrie is in your squad you wont win jack…:grin:
5 Jun 2006, 10:40 am
Loffie will make a difference.
Players respect him
5 Jun 2006, 10:40 am
Morning Swapo
5 Jun 2006, 10:41 am
Jorrie scored a try on Saturday…
5 Jun 2006, 10:48 am
They are on the right tract , sure they will do good this year in the CC. New coach make a hell of a diference in a side.
5 Jun 2006, 10:49 am
A new committed coach that is , someone who will lead the team to higher levels. Good for the Lions , we will see some good rugby from these guys
5 Jun 2006, 10:56 am
Jorrie scored a try??? does he know that scoring tries during the break does not count.
5 Jun 2006, 10:58 am
obviously this one was scored during regular play then, because it counted…LOL!
5 Jun 2006, 11:00 am
Scorers..
Tries: John Daniels, Marius Schoeman, Jorrie Muller, Louis Ludik, Roland Bernard. Conversions: Earl Rose (3), Jody Rose (2) Penalty: Earl Rose
5 Jun 2006, 11:07 am
Well, I’ll eat my words. Well done Jorrie, hope you score many more in the CC. The guy is not half bad, he just sometimes gets a brain explosion and does stupid stuff, which ends up in points scored against him.
5 Jun 2006, 11:12 am
beating the Pumas 38-0 is either a sign that Eloff is getting things right at the Lions, or that the Pumas are going to have a difficult season….
5 Jun 2006, 11:20 am
Walter,
I think the Pumas are going to have a long and hard season, they don’t have any players at all. The only guy that has made a name for himself is Scooter. I back the Pumas to come last in the CC, with 3 wins.
5 Jun 2006, 11:21 am
Who do you see their 3 wins against?
5 Jun 2006, 11:30 am
They ussually give the sharks and lions and cheetahs 1 hard game. so i reckon it will be against them. i might be wrong. at home with their supporters they can be a tough team, but there is more bulls supporters in witbank than in pta.
5 Jun 2006, 11:32 am
The team is also mostly made up of ex-bulls players, isn’t it, I heard something like they are bussed in from Pretoria for practises in Witbank during the week, so none of them are Witbank locals…
5 Jun 2006, 11:36 am
It won’t surprise me, there is nothing happening in Witbank on the rugby side, they don’t even have a decent club structure. They should make like in the cricket and let the smaller unions join forces, for example pumas and falcons and boland and eagles. atleast then you will have strength vs strength.
5 Jun 2006, 13:10 pm
With the same players (actually less variety to choose from) Ludeke always reached the semi’s and on 1 occasion the final.
Anything less for Loffie this year and the team is actually doing even worse.
5 Jun 2006, 13:58 pm
Hmmm…you are right, so Loffie needs to get us to the Final at the least, and it would be great to win it…
5 Jun 2006, 14:24 pm
38-0 gainst a fellow CC side is a right snotting. Specially since the Lions have lost Lorrie, Wikus, Ricky, Petoors, Julies and Fourie to the Boks. All the Pumas have lost is the plot.
I reckon the CC is pretty much in the bag already.
5 Jun 2006, 14:37 pm
Hmmm, Lions never finished in the top 3 in the CC under Ludeke.
The one time they made it to the finals was through the back door beating the Cheetahs in the semi’s. The following week the Lions forwards got slaughtered by the Bulls.
And to think he had players like Joe van Niekerk, Habana, Fourie, Schalk Britz, January, Pretorius and jantjies boggles the mind.
If Lions make it to the finals without their Boks this year, they will have done well.
5 Jun 2006, 15:18 pm
Maybe they should make Jorrie captain, the team can’t do any worse, he might just inspire them.
5 Jun 2006, 15:50 pm
emiel,
Not quite.
When they reached the final JFourie was a new kid on the block and played 15, Jantjies was out of action and form, neither Britz, Habana or Januarie played yet. Mulder had just left and our centres were Jorrie and Coetzee/van der Walt I think.
They also beet the Cheetahs in consecutive weeks (last log game and the semi’s). And yes Dries Scholtz was a different kind of player with a best his ever been Hougaardt in the final.
In Habana’s first CC with Britz we reached the semi’s but Frikkie neutralised Habana and Ettien Botha had a blinder of a game I think scoring 2 try’s. And in Habana’s stead Loffie will have Willemse who will surely be released to the Lions to get some game time, an improvement in my books.
So in actual fact he only has Pretoors (if he is not released to CC) and Januarie that he does not have from those games that’s with the Springboks, but unfortunately will still have Julies.
Plus, all the other provinces have allot more of their squad’s at the Springboks, so he is actually in a better position than Ludeke as he has less competitive opposition.
5 Jun 2006, 16:19 pm
Emiel, you’ve got your facts wrong..
Ludeke started coaching the Lions in the Currie Cup in the 2001 season..
We ended third on the log in the 2001 season
WP 25
Sharks 24
Lions 24
Free State 21
but got knocked out by the Sharkies in the semi..
in 2002 we ended 3rd again..
Sharks 28
Free State 27
Lions 26
NTvl 23
We Beat FS in the semi but got klapped in the final by DH…
4th in 2003 and 2004, so there you are correct
2005 was a funny year were the teams were split, but you can almost say we ended 2nd, as we ended with more points than WP, who ended 1st in their section.
5 Jun 2006, 16:37 pm
Thanks Walter and Hmmm…
Still think the only way one can measure a coache’s success is by looking at what he’s achieved with the player resources available and the time he was given, and on all these counts Ludeke failed.
Don’t know if Eloff is the andswer, but I don’t think he can be any worse.
5 Jun 2006, 16:41 pm
Emiel, don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been a Ludeke fan, and I’m hoping that Eloff can turn things around for us.
It was just wrong to say that we never ended 3rd with him as coach, as it happened at least twice, and 2005 is difficult to say as they split the currie cup in two sections.
I’m also sure that there would have been a player exodus if Ludeke stayed on, I’m sure that’s the main reason he got the boot in the end.
6 Jun 2006, 17:08 pm
Elvis has left the building
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.