Realism must accompany Lions rebuild

Realism must accompany Lions rebuild

14 Feb 2011

RYAN VREDE writes that the Lions and their supporters must be realistic about their expectations in Super Rugby.

Robert Gumede’s substantial investment in the franchise won’t translate into instant success. There will be no dramatic ascent to the southern hemisphere summit.

Certainly the Lions have recruited a number of dependable players, including Waylon Murray, Bandise Maku, Pat Cilliers and Lionel Mapoe.

However, they lack the two or three marquee players that have characterised every champion Super Rugby team – Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield for the Bulls, Dan Carter and Richie McCaw for the Crusaders, or the Brumbies’ Stephen Larkham and George Gregan, for example.

Neither do they have depth beyond a competitive 22, and depth will be a crucial element to the success of all teams in an extended schedule.

What then is a realistic expectation for the Lions? A mid-table finish is not beyond them, and, if achieved, should been seen as an exponential improvement.

Making Ellis Park a fortress and shoring up their defence will be central to realising that objective. In 2010 they conceded 72 tries at an average of 5.5 per match, a dreadful return even by their consistently low standards.

I understand that head coach John Mitchell has made defence the cornerstone on which he wants to build the Lions’ resurgence. Supreme fitness facilitates a sustained defensive effort and my information is that players are fitter than they have been in years. Whether they have the structures to complement their conditioning will be a point of interest.

Their attacking play was impressive at times in 2010, but was always undermined by weak defensive displays. Former head coach Dick Muir failed to remedy this facet of play during his tenure, but Mitchell is more technically and tactically astute and should ensure an improvement in this area.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they beat the Bulls in Johannesburg on Saturday. Their belief is yet to be challenged, they’re at home and could profit from the defending champions’ early season rustiness.

Such a result, however, should not elicit talk of the rise of a new force in Super Rugby. They’ll lose as many as they win, but after their diabolical 2010 campaign that would constitute a success.

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342 Comments

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  • 301.shooter: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:49 pm

    Hi. I see Ryan is building the base early in the year by giving some Lions coverage. good angle.

    i bargaining on the commentators to explain the conference system. no newspapers in two years.

    i must have made lots of interest on my keo dollars since i have been here last.

    james phillips is die man. @271… black cat bones, also a cool band in black. blues and rock and little heavy too. yes katman i can see what your daughter is doing to you :) D…

    what else can i say.

  • 302.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:49 pm

    yeah I reckon the Irish and the Jews and the Africans all got something in common, they know and respect where real music is at.

    Thats why Benny Goodman and Satchmo and Dizzy Gillespie could all get off on the same strain or beat. They probably all related, somewhere down the line.

  • 303.>^..^< katman: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:50 pm

    @JockBok(JockBok)-295: Don’t apologise for Deacon Blue. They were a great band. I really dig a song of theirs called Only Tender Love. Has a real driving bass line and raw vocals. They did good pop too.

  • 304.cab: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:51 pm

    wtf is ou doos reciting old troubadore songs for, next thing we going to be hearing about fair madens and banbury cross, what a load of crud.

  • 305.shooter: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:56 pm

    who really thought twitter is a name that will work.

  • 306.JockBok: Reply to this comment
    14 Feb 2011, 23:56 pm

    @>^..^< katman(katman)-303:

    Lol. I Liked them. I saw them in Glasgow and at Wembley during the afore mentioned tour. They were huge in Scotland, and in my opinion, stole the thunder of another Scottish band called Goodbye Mr MacKenzie. They kind of took their sound and made it famous. I saw them at the Marquee, the venue that you knew once you played, you knew you’d made it.

    They never made it. But you probably know Shirley Manson who went onto Garbage and to star in some American tv show that eludes me now.

  • 307.JockBok: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:00 am

    @cab(cab)-304:

    Billy Bragg sung about all that old stuff rather well.

  • 308.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:00 am

    en u2 verloor 650 fans in een dag. as hulle die leeus was is dit nog net daai een dude wie hulle ondersteun…

  • 309.JockBok: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:01 am

    Hitting the sack. Night folks…

  • 310.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:02 am

    ok ok. te veel dialoog al reeds. >

  • 311.cab: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:02 am

    @JockBok(JockBok)-307:
    who was the fella that did ‘closing time’, real big songwriter in the old days? irish or scottish or what?

  • 312.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:03 am

    @JockBok(JockBok)-309: ek bedoel self… jy sien.. daar praat ons alweer. bye

  • 313.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:04 am

    @cab(cab)-311: closing time is leonard cohen most prob… unles he did it from some-one before.

  • 314.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:05 am

    tryna educate you about old folk influence on modern music

    but I guess you don’t wanna understand. One the biggest selling cover songs ever, ‘stairway to heaven’ is pure old English folk music in modern form. ‘John Barleycorn’ by Traffic another. Plenty Jethro Tull’s early stuff is almost pure Baroque.

    Most Dylan’s early work between 62 and 64 was pure folk music with a beatnik kinda thought process behind it, which is what drove it towards the revolutionary direction it took.

    Even Hendrix covered ‘all along the watchtower’ which is English folk music in a different guise.

  • 315.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:06 am

    and canadian

  • 316.cab: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:08 am

    @shooter(shooter)-313:
    think u actually might be right, cohen was pretty heavy stuff, was thinking of tom waits, better hit the sack.

  • 317.>^..^< katman: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:08 am

    @cab(cab)-311: Closing Time was Leonard Cohen off a mid-90′s album called The Future. Two other tracks off that album (The Future and Waiting for the Miracle) made it onto the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.

    Check out Cohen’s Live in London show off his recent world tour (there are plenty of vids on Youtube). The man is in his mid seventies, but he holds and audience like no other. And he surrounds himself with incredible musos.

  • 318.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:10 am

    Leonard Cohen covered the song ‘Closing time’, though Dan Wilson of Semisonic wrote it

  • 319.>^..^< katman: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:11 am

    @shooter(shooter)-308: Daai 650 mense wat hulle geld gemors het verdien wat hule kry. As jy teen díe tyd nie weet Bono is ‘n arrogante drol nie, dan is ‘n duur les dalk die moeite werd.

  • 320.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:13 am

    Bjorn is a Bull… hohoho.

  • 321.>^..^< katman: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:15 am

    @skopiskoobidoo(ilanjo)-318: I believe that would be tricky since the Cohen “cover” was released in ’94 and the Semisonic song was only recorded 5 years later. Also, the fact that they have entirely different lyrics make me suspicious.

  • 322.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:15 am

    @>^..^< katman(katman)-319: ha, 10/1.. ek bedoel ook die kommentaar -re oor folk songs. die fb community neem die hooivurk op. LOL. wat kan ek se’ :)

  • 323.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:16 am

    Tom Waits also covered it

  • 324.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:17 am

    regtig goeie algemene musiek kennis in die algemeen

  • 325.>^..^< katman: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:18 am

    @shooter(shooter)-322: Ek wil sien hoe tegemoetkomend is hy oor die Engelse folk song, “Starve the Paddy”.

  • 326.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:19 am

    @skopiskoobidoo(ilanjo)-323: ek het ook al :)

  • 327.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:23 am

    ken nie daai ene nie. die eiland bewoners het sy klad.

    al wat ek ken is die Bats. ek het nog ‘n plaat waar met die Trein na Weltevrede Stasie, Ware Liefde, Ons Geheime Wapen (is…..?) ens speel. Ja die album se naam is Pos-seels.

  • 328.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:25 am

    dis ‘n geheim.

  • 329.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:26 am

    so it turns out there are 3 different closing times

    Waits in 73
    Cohen
    and Semisonic

  • 330.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:26 am

    ok banzai g’naand >

  • 331.shooter: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:30 am

    @skopiskoobidoo(ilanjo)-329: hi and bye skop!

  • 332.skopiskoobidoo: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 00:31 am

    naand shooter

  • 333.KevinRack: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 02:26 am

    The ABs skill videos are fake http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/nsw-waratahs-follow-in-federers-footsteps-20110215-1au4n.html

  • 334.bryce_in_oz: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 02:40 am

    @KevinRack(KevinRack)-333:

    Where have you been for the last year or so?

  • 335.KevinRack: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 04:18 am

    Sydney of course

  • 336.KevinRack: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 04:21 am

    Man the rugby better start soon, need my fix. Sevens just is not strong enough for me.

  • 337.bryce_in_oz: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 04:40 am

    @KevinRack(KevinRack)-335:

    Hehe… yeah I meant they all ‘including’ Federer nicked the ‘tricks’ from a NFL team in the States that posted the blue-print on youtube some many moons ago…

  • 338.DonutDunning: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 05:16 am

    @KevinRack(KevinRack)-333: Brumbies did a parody of that AB skills video at training once. Was pretty funny. Fairly sure one of Ashley-Cooper’s over-the-head chips just landed straight on his head.

    Found it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7X8Sc5u0hY

  • 339.Taahirah: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 08:19 am

    Deon Stegmann got engaged last night. I think Agile t*t Tyrant might have committed suicide upon hearing the news.

  • 340.KevinRack: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 08:55 am

    Watch these in order:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZx7dxz2CUU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12K-qXPu-rM

    Nice pisstake on the Abs video

  • 341.gunther: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 09:40 am

    @Taahirah(Taahirah)-339:

    unless he was the luck guy :)

  • 342.Grrrr....I'm still a Lion!: Reply to this comment
    15 Feb 2011, 09:40 am

    If we win just one game in this Super Rugby competition it will be a 100% improvement from last year. I know we will never win it this year, probably not next year either and frankly I don’t car that much. I’m just happy things are changing and I do feel a new energy coming from the Lions camp. I just don’t want them to be walking 5 points. Good luck to them!

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