More of the same from Lions
24 Feb 2010
The Lions will continue to experiment on attack and Dick Muir’s confident they’ll improve on their disastrous defensive display against the Chiefs.
The Lions face the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday, a side renowned for their attacking prowess and who last week broke the shackles and put seven tries past the Force. The Australians were admittedly poor in their one-on-one tackles, but nowhere near as bad as the Lions who leaked nine to the Chiefs.
Muir refused to blame individuals for the defensive calamity, even though both sides missed 47 in total during the 80 minutes at Ellis Park on Friday. Last year the Lions had the worst defensive record in the Super 14, where they conceded 56 in 13 matches under Loffie Eloff, where a lack of fitness and discipline hampered their ability in this area.
But when brought in as a consultant, Jake White prioritised defence and discipline during last year’s Currie Cup. In a matter of weeks they held the third best defensive record and didn’t concede a bonus point during the campaign. Despite this, Muir said the defensive structures aren’t in place.
‘We know we have to tighten up in defence,’ Muir told keo.co.za. ‘It’s a systems problem, not the individuals involved. We worked on it quite a bit in Tuesday’s practice [their first in New Zealand after arriving late on Monday night], and I’m sure we’ll see improvement in that regard.
‘Defence is the major area of improvement I’m looking at, but I’m also looking at our decision-making and patience on attack. We can’t force those passes.’
As it was in the Eloff-era, the Lions’ frantic approach doesn’t aid their defence, especially against sides such as the Chiefs and Canes who thrive off turnovers and against unset defensive lines.
Muir said he wouldn’t necessarily encourage his players to play for territory more, even though they’ve repeatedly been caught in possession on the counter, costing them points against the Stormers and Chiefs.
‘Ja well, we’re always looking to improve in all aspects,’ he said when asked about their tactical kicking. ‘It’s about getting the balance right between attacking and defending.
‘But with our inexperienced side, I want us to try things and see what happens. I’ll be pleased if we have tried things, as we’re just getting used to one another.
‘We all know how good a guy like Carlos Spencer is. The more the players understand him, the better for the team.’
Meanwhile, Muir wasn’t willing to divulge any details regarding his team to be announced on Thursday. Willem Stoltz has been banned for a week after elbowing Aled de Malmanche, but Muir said Jacques Lombaard won’t necessarily be the replacement.
‘I haven’t made a final call, but George Earle may start, we have a lot of confidence in him.’
By Grant Ball
36 Comments
24 Feb 2010, 06:18 am
Will be a force to reckon with in 2/3 seasons time
24 Feb 2010, 07:55 am
ek sal bid
maar belowe fo kkall
24 Feb 2010, 08:11 am
Carlos was invited to the party, but we are still awaiting his arrival. Hopefully very soon, otherwise start with Francis or give (I can believe I’m saying this) the Pearl at run in the number 10 jumper.
24 Feb 2010, 08:14 am
ja…earl or burton….
never understood the carlos thing!
24 Feb 2010, 08:29 am
Hey Grant you forgot to add the following line at the bottom of your article :
“This has been another of many KEO sponsored Jake White adverts, we at KEO love you Jakey…. “
24 Feb 2010, 08:31 am
Word of advice for Muir…
Start Todd Clever and leave him on the field for the WHOLE game…!!!
24 Feb 2010, 08:35 am
@Icemoney: ha,ha…
Yip, that’s true…
In the new SA Rugby magazine they have Jake giving his take on why Brussow is so good as a fetcher… I mean really… Jake talking on fetchers…
I like Jake White, but this rent a quote for KEO stuff is getting me down.
24 Feb 2010, 08:35 am
word of advice for muir
its first and foremost about defence.
Candy floss later
meat and potatoes first
24 Feb 2010, 08:37 am
@Rum And Maple: 7
Thats hilarious….
Jake on fetchers?
Hypocritical bugger
i just spilled my tea on my laptop!!
24 Feb 2010, 08:42 am
@grant10:
Had a chat with Burton last week – and he’s full of praise for Spencer. He says the amount that he’s learned from Spencer in such a short time is unbelievable.
He says that with Spencer their he’s already become a better player.
In his opinion it was a masterstroke of the Lions to get Spencer. Playing was always gonne be Spencer’s secondary role, it’s his mentoring and experience the the other players can draw from that will benefit the Lions more.
**** doesn’t want to feed Francis to the wolves. He wants to gradually phase him into Super 14, thus the 25 minutes per game he’s currently getting. Once Muir believes Francis to be ready to run a side on his own, he’ll start with him.
As Muir said, this is all a process.
24 Feb 2010, 08:42 am
@grant10: It’s true, go read it… very funny…
That really just proves how Keo punts Jake, and unfortunitely my Lions are now the “fall guy”…
Do yourself a favour and go compare the articles on the Lions during the CC when Jake was at the GLRU to the articles that is written now…
24 Feb 2010, 08:44 am
@Rum And Maple:
and Jake White said he wouldn’t pick Brussow for the Boks…
a bit like asking George Bush to rate the first year performance of Barack Obama…!!
24 Feb 2010, 08:46 am
@WilladieLeeu: @ 10
That’s great to hear…!!
24 Feb 2010, 08:48 am
@grant10:
Mutton, carrots, onions, some parsely, potatoes and stock.
Boil the mutton alone for one hour, then add the rest in a big pot and simmer for one and a half hours.
24 Feb 2010, 08:48 am
@WilladieLeeu: 10
okay…you have sold me….
now just tell muir to please focus on defence…i hated that basketball rubbish the 2 teams dished up Fri nite!
@Rum And Maple: Jake the snake….the man always has an agenda…the Malema of SA Rugby….
anyway…off to computicket to get my tickets for fri nite stormers game…before i am too late
cheers all
outta here
24 Feb 2010, 08:49 am
@WP Till I Die: yummy
afetr computicket a breakfast now in order!
24 Feb 2010, 08:50 am
@ufo: Ha,Ha…
Or like JC talking on the values of chastity….
24 Feb 2010, 08:52 am
@grant10:
Our defence isn’t that bad. Province with their 7 million Rand backline could only manage two tries against us.
Was an evening where both sides just decided to run at any cost and defence took the back seat, it’s getting the balance right, won’t happen again. HOPE NOT!!!!!!
24 Feb 2010, 08:55 am
@WilladieLeeu: Hello Willa…
Wat dink jy is onse Leeus se kanse die naweek?
Kies hulle altyd vir ‘n wen uit lojaliteit so my Superbru is redelik moer toe…
Jy het altyd goeie insette en het komunikasie met die span…
24 Feb 2010, 08:59 am
@Rum And Maple:
Eerlik, as ons met n bonuspunt of twee daar kan wegkom sal ek baie happy wees. Die ouens besef dit gan moeilik wees, maar glo hulle kan.
Gan moer tuff wees daar in NZ, en die Canes is goed. Maar as ons met n bang kan begin, kan ons wen. Walter is op die bench so vir my is dit reeds n tree in die regte rigting.
24 Feb 2010, 09:03 am
@grant10:
Meat and potatoes – good Irish fare.
You should have yourself a full Irish breakfast – sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding, white pudding, and some fried potato bread.
24 Feb 2010, 09:06 am
@WilladieLeeu: Dis baie goeie nuus oor Walla…
Ek dink hy kan ‘n verskil maak…
Ag wat, sal hulle maar weer pick vir ‘n wen… dom astrant…
Eintlik sal ek ook net bly wees vir ‘n paar bonus punte op toer en miskien 1 wen…
As die span goed saam kan bly kan ons ‘n goeie laaste paar games he as ons terug is by die huis…
24 Feb 2010, 09:10 am
@Rum And Maple:
DM en die afrigting span teiken die tweede helfte vir log points en wenne.
Die eerste helfte gan vir hulle oor om die ouens te lat settle en dinge te probeer en die regte kombinasies te kry.
24 Feb 2010, 09:17 am
@WilladieLeeu: Ja, het dit ook so verstaan en mens kan dit sien in hoe die manne speel…
Hulle het seker ‘n moerse klomp selfvertroue gekry met die game vrydag… lekker teruggeveg en ‘n hele paar mooi driee gedruk…
24 Feb 2010, 09:48 am
Okay, so now this site is trying to plant seeds for the resurrection of the Cats to make room for the “royal” Kings. Surely we all will agree the Cats was a total failure never to be repeated. The only time the Cats played well was under Mains when he selected the whole Lions side (who played good rugby at the time).
24 Feb 2010, 09:58 am
@Katsesnor: KEO Propaganda machine…
Right up there with the “Open Secret” stuff…
24 Feb 2010, 09:59 am
C’mon **** – don’t prove me wrong where I rated you as a good coach.
Get this team sorted to play some attractive, but also simple rugby.
24 Feb 2010, 10:03 am
@WilladieLeeu:
I see your ex coach is moving fast in the Boland.
He lured Bolla Conradie and Hottie Louw to Boland and Rassie also gave him Hilton Lobberts.
It seems therefore as if he is now working with more Springboks as he had at the Cats
To be slightly more serious, I heard he is really having a positive impact on the bunch of youngsters at Wellington.
24 Feb 2010, 10:24 am
**** doesn’t want to divulge details of his team …
Could that be because he doesn’t know what his team is yet?
could that be because the gypsy that reads fortunes outside the oriental plaza only consults on Thursday afternoons and today is wednesday?
24 Feb 2010, 10:41 am
@29. gunther :
Maybe it’s becauce he hasn’t consulted with Jack White…. because “You always win with White, JWWW”
“This comment was sponsoered by KEO to show our undying love for Jakey”
24 Feb 2010, 10:54 am
Maybe it’s because jake white is the gypsy outside the oriental plaza on a Thursday afternoon,..
24 Feb 2010, 12:41 pm
@ufo: Agreed.
24 Feb 2010, 12:41 pm
About Todd Clever playing full 80 mins.
24 Feb 2010, 18:59 pm
Muir certainly knows better than that?
So he got a well paid job to entrench the G Lions at the bottom of the Super14?
That what I understood from the mumble jumble that Grant (presumably) quoted Muir, I’ll put an asterisk there just in case
25 Feb 2010, 07:53 am
Mortlock hasn’t seen ‘too much’ of De Jongh (Cape Times)
Experienced Brumbies centre Stirling Mortlock says teams in the 2010 Super 14 are keeping the ball in hand more and adopting an expansive approach because of the new law interpretations at the breakdown.
The Brumbies have always been known to keep the ball in hand with the likes of Stephen Larkham and George Gregan dictating play from the flyhalf and scrumhalf channels respectively. They varied their play beautifully with short and long passes to unlock opposition defences.
in 2010, though, it seems all the teams in the competition have adopted the tactic……
The new law interpretation at the breakdown – the tackler must release the tackled player immediately – is making the game a lot faster.
This, according to Mortlock, is the main reason for so many high-scoring matches in the opening two rounds of the competition.
“I think at this stage we are still getting a feel for the new interpretation of the laws,” Mortlock said on Wednesday. “Certainly the scores from last weekend were huge and a lot of tries were scored. Expansive football is being played and that is because a lot of teams are holding on to possession.
“So, if you are effective in that area, you can score a lot of tries. We have to go back to the drawing board and re-organise our defence to deal with the sustained pressure from the opposition,” record Super 14 points-scorer Mortlock added.
The Brumbies were themselves on the wrong end of a hiding last weekend. The Canberra side lost 50-32 to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld after running out of steam in the last quarter of the match.
Poor discipline played a major part and the team will hope to limit their error-rate when they take on the unbeaten Stormers at Newlands on Friday.
“You have to be on your game for 80 minutes in this competition. Probably even more so with the new interpretations of the laws this year, because teams can put you to bed by scoring two or three tries in five minutes.
“So you really have to be on your game for the full 80 minutes and unfortunately we weren’t last week,” the former Wallaby skipper said.
Springbok outside centre Jaque Fourie and flying wing Bryan Habana have given the Stormers some much-needed bite on attack this season. Add exciting youngster Juan de Jongh to the mix and it is clear that the Brumbies will be facing a potent trio of strike runners.
25 Feb 2010, 08:11 am
According to Mortlock and Matfield, the Lions are not playing netball or whatever Keo and his minions are calling it here, they are just adapting to the new interpretation at the breakdown like everyone else.What I’m actually trying to tell Keo and co is that the are many other ways of advertising Jake White and licking his behind other than writting **** senseless articles about Muir and the Lions, think about it
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