Lions’ season not yet finalised
25 Oct 2012
Lions CEO Ruben Moggee says the team’s international fixtures for 2013 are still not confirmed.
Reports on the Lions’ plans for 2013 emerged on Thursday morning, after the Johannesburg franchise had a breakfast with its suit-holders, members and ex-players to discuss their way forward following their Super Rugby relegation.
The Lions were proud to announce fixtures against Samoa, Russia, European clubs, French and USA Barbarians sides and American teams. They will also compete in friendlies against South African franchises the Bulls, Stormers, Cheetahs and Sharks. (All teams listed below).
However, Moggee said the planning of these fixtures is still ongoing.
‘Only the fixtures against the South African franchises are confirmed,’ Moggee told keo.co.za. ‘We will play against two local teams before Super Rugby, and then the other two during the break in June.
‘The feedback from the international clubs have been very positive, especially the reaction from the European clubs. They see this as an opportunity to add something fresh to their schedule. We’ve been discussing things for the past month now.’
Moggee believes the schedule will be finalised over the next fortnight.
These fixtures are set to be televised via SuperSport and most of the games will be played at Ellis Park. The Lions are likely to tour the USA to face the American teams.
This schedule will prepare the Lions for their Super Rugby play-offs against next season’s last-placed South African franchise.
Interim head coach Johan Ackermann, who led the Lions to the Currie Cup semi-finals, is favourite to take over from suspended Kiwi boss John Mitchell on a permanent basis next year. Mitchell is expected to join English club the Sale Sharks once his disciplinary hearing has been settled.
‘We are still waiting for the chairman’s response to the hearing,’ said Moggee. ‘Thereafter, we will have an open and transparent process to appoint a new head coach. But Johan is regarded as the favourite and he’s contracted to us until the end of 2013.’
Meanwhile, the Lions are to announce two more loan deals in the near future.
Speedster Lionel Mapoe is finalising a move to the Bulls, while flyhalf Elton Jantjies is closing talks with the Stormers.
The teams the Lions are planning to face in 2013:
* Bulls (confirmed)
* Stormers (confirmed)
* Cheetahs (confirmed)
* Sharks (confirmed)
* Russia
* Glasgow Warriors
* Agen
* Grenoble
* Samoa
* Montpellier
* French Barbarians
* US Barbarians
* Texas Cup club champions
By Gareth Duncan
41 Comments
25 Oct 2012, 15:21 pm
Wie’s volgende? Die dowe skool se 3e span?!
25 Oct 2012, 15:25 pm
@Kid_Senekal-1: haha No, E@Kid_Senekal-1: haha No, EP Kings
25 Oct 2012, 16:19 pm
what happens for the games versus local teams, do the players on loan play for the Lions? I guess not. Could be sad to see Jantjes killing the Lions
25 Oct 2012, 16:25 pm
Moggee?
25 Oct 2012, 18:09 pm
@kid senekal , lol! Dowe skool se 4rde span
25 Oct 2012, 18:14 pm
No finalised plans yet or TV rights… This is not gonna happen. Send andries coetzee to Wp as well please.
25 Oct 2012, 18:15 pm
Lions do not have a season next year.
25 Oct 2012, 18:46 pm
Can someone tell me what the Texas Cup is? When I searched for Texas Cup in google i get soccer. So is tried Texas Cup Rugby and found some wheelchair rugby competition. I don’t want to be offensive to anyone with a disability but WTF!!?!
25 Oct 2012, 19:30 pm
The Lions management are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this lot.
It seems the Lions like getting rogered week in and week out.
Who at the Lions is taking these amateur decisions?
Seems like Kevin & Co are happy to suck the hind *** and expect that they will win their Promotion relegation next year.
The Lions are starting to look more like ***** cats than a professional outfit.
25 Oct 2012, 20:31 pm
French Barbarians
US Barbarians
But not Samoan Barbarians. That’s racist.
25 Oct 2012, 20:44 pm
Lions are really scraping the barrel with these club sides. Their so called supporters dont pitch at ellis park normally and they wont pitch for this. The suite owners are not gonna be happy as well. Lions are becoming a feeder team.
25 Oct 2012, 20:48 pm
@Gonzo lol! @Katman , not racist just cunning because those Samoans wouldve klapped the lions…
25 Oct 2012, 20:53 pm
Why doesn’t Moggee ask Keo to organise a team from Peru to play against the Lions. After all there’s a lot of luggage and I don’t think it will be searched. Can only be a win-win for the Keo team and the Lions. 22 Mules plus a few extra carriers. ****, it could resolve the Lions financial woes overnight!! If it happens then I want a ‘cut’ for my idea
25 Oct 2012, 21:01 pm
Couldn’t Keo organise a team from Peru to play against the Lions. I mean, 22 players plus management make for a lot of mules. Don’t think the bags will be searched. It can only be a win win for both Moggee and Keo team. And if they do it, I hope I get my “cut” for my idea
25 Oct 2012, 21:09 pm
where the hell are the comments?
26 Oct 2012, 10:10 am
The Lions should be building a side with new players new excitement with new ideas and instead they are lining up crappy sides at enormous cost to the union.
Seems that Moggee and Kevin de Klerk are all beat up from the past months scrap and all out of ideas and energy and it shows.
Hardly the kind of rugby line up to bring in new sponsors, an extreme make over is called for.
I wonder what the players, sponsors schools and universities make of this stunned mullet no can do situation.
Oh well we can only watch a once proud Lions union panting its last
26 Oct 2012, 10:12 am
I’m sure Moggee will be magnanimous enough to share all his planning with Cheeky and Solomons when the Kings are looking for opponents in 2014.
The Kings will need that help in truck-loads as they clearly cannot organise a bonk in a brothel without the government holding their hands and giving them endless dubious handouts.
26 Oct 2012, 10:42 am
Go Lions! 13 games should keep them competitive and sharp! No matter who it is! 4 games against SR teams is a good start!
A year building towards the 2014 Super Rugby campaign is the best medicine for a struggling team like the Lions. They have a year to work on their depth, which was the telling factor during their dismal SR campaign, with the enormous amount of injuries ! And the players wont be overplayed!
If the games are broadcasted it will bring in sponsors and Im sure curiosity will win them some viewers too…I doubt the stadiums will attract much supporters though…
I dont know why everyone is so negative. These games should generate optimism!
The Kings will discover that depth is key to success in SR… Do they have quality depth? I dont think so!
26 Oct 2012, 10:45 am
@Umlungu-16: You seem to be very knowledgeable about what the Lions should and shouldn’t be doing so I have a few questions for you:
1. How do you develop new young players without giving them regular game time?
2. If not these “crappy” sides, who else, considering that the SH is playing Super Rugby and the NH is playing 6 Nations, Aviva Championship, Heineken Cup, RaboDirect 12 and Top 14 with a B&I Lions tour to Australia to follow?
3. Or do the Lions follow the Kings example and sit on their collective asses waiting for handouts?
26 Oct 2012, 11:05 am
@Baylion-19:
Exactly. The Kings should have developed their depth for the past 5 years! Instead they play a lily white team… Where are all the local talent??
26 Oct 2012, 11:43 am
Good Luck to the Lions for trying to organise games, the Kings have been sitting for years on their back sides and saying look at all the talent we have and no super rugby, AG SHAME.
All those who ridicule these games tell me who else would be willing to come over and play.
The only problem I see is who is paying for this, if it comes out of the Lions coffers I say No way.
If SABC or TOPTV or DSTV pay for it then bring it on.
26 Oct 2012, 15:28 pm
@umkhonto… Dstv wont do it cause theres no money in it, toptv has No money and sabc wont touch it cause the lions are k@k.
26 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
@umkhonto-21: I hope they can get some sponsors for these games but it is still a process and the next step is to get SARU and IRB appoval, then get TV exposure and only then can you really tie down sponsors. In the end the Lions (and Glasfit?) might have to carry some of the costs. But the players need game time if they are expected to be ready for the wooden spoon play-offs.
26 Oct 2012, 16:04 pm
@Baylion-19:
Ja BayLion to answer your question in the simplest of fashion this is what is:
1. Regular game time comes from a tournament that last at least 3 years so the youngsters at school university and clubs can set their sights on playing in an international televised tournament
2. One plays the Top Tier nations like Wales or Scotland that have equivalent heritage and mature corporate sponsors that identify with the rugby heritage. One could even play Japan becuase they host the RWC in 2019 and because the USA is centred around the collegiate sports, focus on high net worth areas like Boston New York, San Francisco, LA and their universities and premier league sides. This is where the money and the alumni are. In fact even Ralph Lauren has http://www.rugby.com registered as his and he is dying to jump in on something as authentic as rugby as we know it from club to professional ranks.
3. The Lions certainly do NOT do as the Southern Kings or EP Kings or whatever their name is or has been doing and break the mould and bring innovation and energy and new ideas into a fossilised tournament structure.
But to do all of this you need someone who gets the idea and vision and can drive and propel the Lions into a worldclass professional sports unit and build a power base of talented rugby players and generate cash from these initiatives. If not the Lions themselves will become prehistoric.
26 Oct 2012, 16:13 pm
@Baylion-23:
No sponsors will pay for this cobbled together roster of games.
No broadcaster will cover these games as they have no pulling power.
The Lions are chasing a dream of respectability & credibility and are failing week in and week out as they do not have a 3 year plan.
All of this stuff they presented to us the other day at breakfast is hocus pocus and belongs in a Harry Potter book.
They have chosen to walk a path with Willem Stauss Sports Promotions who is some amped up steroid boosted cretin that offers up Namibia, SAMOA and some French clubs as material equivalent to Super Rugby.
Each game is a R3m party’jie for the visiting squad of 30 players from Russia, Samoa, France and America that will have the Lions footing the bill.
Take R3m X 10 games at home and you have R30m just for these ridiculous turnouts and then add the Lions monthly costs and suddenly you have a reality check that this does not work and the Lions have lost 6 months of planning stuffing around making movies in their heads.
26 Oct 2012, 16:29 pm
@Umlungu-25: yoh!
26 Oct 2012, 16:32 pm
@Transformation-26:
Ja boet.
You are a student of the game and this is how it is.
The Lions need a firecracker and they need it now.
26 Oct 2012, 16:33 pm
@Umlungu-24: Mate it sounds as though (and I mean this) YOU should be sitting on the board of the GLRFU.
More sense in your 2 posts, than anything that has come from the Lions execs in a decade.
26 Oct 2012, 16:41 pm
I do know who should be there driving this stuff for the LiONS & it would probably make you fall off your chair if I told you his name but he has gonads as big as church bells and would take this outfit by the scruff of its neck, shake out the BS and read SARU the riot act and put the LIONS back on track and a world class rugby brand.
Imagine the possibilities the LIONS have for turning their lot around.
1. Make great bedfellows with the Leopards and Pumas
2. Make nice with the sponsors, suite holders 7 season ticket holders
3. Fill Ellis Park to the rafters with fans
4. Introduce a whole new mojo and energy to Ellis Park
5. Build a whole new elite squad hand in hand with all the GLRU schools 7 universities
I could go on
26 Oct 2012, 16:44 pm
@Umlungu-29: Who is he? And would he be interested. If so, I’m guessing people like you will be doing all you can to ensure this happens.
26 Oct 2012, 17:07 pm
@Umlungu-27: your posts are so refreshing from the usual “the Kings did this, the Kings did that”.
informative stuff boet!
26 Oct 2012, 17:10 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-30:
All I know is that he was one of the short listed for the Lions CEO and was previously the Spears CEO, knows the game and players inside out and can put together a rescue plan in two ticks to revitalise & rejuvenate the LIONS.
He takes no prisoners and tells it like it is, which is why he gave SARU two black eyes.
26 Oct 2012, 17:12 pm
en daar het jy dit. Fluit fluit die storie is uit.
26 Oct 2012, 17:29 pm
Ja well no fine. Umlungu you smooth talker
at least it sounds like sense.
26 Oct 2012, 17:42 pm
@Umlungu-32: ahhhhhh my boy Top Of New York
26 Oct 2012, 17:48 pm
@shooter-34:
Smooth – like an Amarula?
26 Oct 2012, 17:57 pm
@Umlungu-33: Tony M. Good call that actually. You honestly do make a lot of sense with a lot of what you are saying.
26 Oct 2012, 17:58 pm
@Transformation-35: @shooter-34
A city so great they named it twice!
26 Oct 2012, 18:19 pm
@Umlungu-24:
So you propose a reconstructed version of Tony McKeever’s Super 6 Series as a solution for while the Lions are looking to keep their players match fit during what they see as a short break from Super Rugby.
BTW, how well did the Southern Spears do under this guy? Never got going and went bankrupt if memory serves.
In the meantime, how do you propose the Lions give their players game time during the first half of next year and how do you see the Lions getting first tier nations like Wales and Scotland involved during the first half of next year?
26 Oct 2012, 18:29 pm
@umlungu, well said mate. The lions are chasing pies in the sky… And to crown it all their stupid fans like Baydomp@eslion cant read. Lol
27 Oct 2012, 11:18 am
@Baylion-39:
I happen to know that contact has been made with two Tier One nations and their respective coaches and both have agreed to a Tri-Game Series – 2 home at Ellis Park and one away at each of Cardiff and Tokyo.
Add these 6 games (sponsored) to the 10 (5 home & 5 away) from the proposed Super 6 Series feeder tournament and the Lions have a potent mix for the 1st 6 months which mends a lot of fences for the Lions in SA and builds new bridges with proper rugby partners whose markets can sustain this sponsorship and television coverage, and by making this a 3 year program – to tie down sponsors – it will provide a feeder system of elite talent as well as generate much needed wonga for the Lions, to maintain a level of acquisition and retention of the best players.
Now that is a business model that brings dignity & power back to the Lions den and all of its clubs.
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