Lions, Mitchell find common ground
23 Nov 2012
John Mitchell has stepped down as Lions head coach and will continue as a consultant over the next 12 months.
After a five-month spat between the Johannesburg union and the Kiwi coach, the two parties have agreed final terms.
Mitchell will continue as an advisor and will not be allowed to work at any other South African union or franchise. However, he will be allowed to work overseas and has recently signed a deal with English Premiership club the Sale Sharks.
This comes after the 48-year-old was suspended in June after the players complained about his strict and harsh management ways during Super Rugby. He was found not guilty in November.
Johan Ackermann, who mentored the Lions during the Currie Cup in Mitchell’s abence, takes over as head coach on a permanent basis.
‘This was made at John’s request and we accepted,’ Moggee told keo.co.za. ‘With the Lions relegated from Super Rugby, he felt there was no use in taking the team forward with Johan also on the management. He believed that Johan had to continue with his progress, after doing well in the Currie Cup.
‘John will still add value as an adviser over the next 12 months, as we prepare for the Super Rugby promotion-relegation play-offs.’
Mitchell first joined the Lions in June 2010 and coached the team to their Currie Cup title in 2011.
By Gareth Duncan
43 Comments
23 Nov 2012, 13:08 pm
Seems JM has invented a new type of animals husbandry…
Milking the Lions…!!
If he has signed for the Sale Sharks why doesn’t he just go and earn his salary there…?
Seems he’s taken some advice from D!!ck Muir… How to get paid millions bu the Lions for doing squat.
23 Nov 2012, 13:12 pm
@ufo-1:
farken pathetic really but i blame the farking lions management/exec for actuallly agreeing to and thinknig that such a deal was to their benefit.
fark me.
i farken hate every last farken one of those imbecilic incompetent farken lions execs from the depth of my farken heart.
fark!
23 Nov 2012, 13:12 pm
This is his way of teaching them a very expensive and humbling lesson.
23 Nov 2012, 13:27 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-2:
no reason to hate anyone…
them’s just human people too…
23 Nov 2012, 13:29 pm
Yeah, go on Bakkies, spread the love!
23 Nov 2012, 13:37 pm
WHAT????
Who will coach them in the Super15 next year???
Oh wait… LOL!!!
23 Nov 2012, 13:41 pm
Mitch:
Ousted from the AB’s.
Ousted from the Force.
Ousted from the Lions.
Well that’s the SH farked.
England……………………………..here comes Mitch. Hold onto your hats.
23 Nov 2012, 13:45 pm
@cane-7:
Didn’t he already have a stint there?
If I remember correctly he was the forward coach of the Poms that went on to win the WC
23 Nov 2012, 13:45 pm
@cane-7: What do you have against Mitch?
One of the great Currie Cup and All Black coaches of our time.
23 Nov 2012, 13:50 pm
Mitch know his future earning potential is dwindling by the day. So he must line the nest while he can.
23 Nov 2012, 13:52 pm
@nortierd-8:
Sure did.
He was an Asst Coach of England, under Sir Clive Woodward.
Both a pair of Counts.
23 Nov 2012, 14:01 pm
@suffer_guy-6: Charles Dumbwin – November 23, 2012 at 13:03
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WHAT????
Who will coach them in the Super15 next year???
Oh wait… LOL!!!
Looks like you alter ego’s also got a k@k name.
You should really use different comments for different sites. doesn’t make you look very smart when you use the same comment across threads.
23 Nov 2012, 14:02 pm
@willievz-9:
Mitch is most likely one of the best Asst Coaches a Team could ever have.
Good Cop/ Bad Cop.
Guess which one Mitch is?
But never ever allow him to be in control.
On a personal level with the players…………………………..he is poison.
With the Media…………………………………….he is a friggen disaster.
The very attributes, that made him a Legend in his playing days, in the Waikato …………made him a liability in Coaching.
23 Nov 2012, 14:05 pm
@nortierd-8: He was the backs coach during England’s golden couple of years of backline play and left to coach the ABs.
23 Nov 2012, 14:21 pm
robert gumede’s prolly laughing his gat af nou…
23 Nov 2012, 14:25 pm
I’ve always enjoyed his no nonsense and abrasive approach.
If one was to judge him solely on his coaching, he has done very well, whether with limited resources at the Force and Lions, as well as on higher levels such as the All Blacks.
I don’t know him personally and obviously have not been coached by him, thus I can’t speak of his man management skills, or lack thereof.
What I do know is that if I were a coach and my team performed like the Lions in the S15, I would also not have played ring a rosies with them, but would also have preferred the sjambok method
23 Nov 2012, 14:26 pm
@ufo-4:
no, i hate them… i trully hate them for what they have done and continue to do to that union.
where is the sense of shame in one’s inability to fulfill a job properly and such instance to do the right thing and step down?
@BrumbiesBoy-5:
yes, yes i will.
i hate them
i hate them
i hate them
23 Nov 2012, 14:31 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-17: They should all fall on their swords Bakkies…. (Or in their case, blunt butter knives)
23 Nov 2012, 14:42 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-18:
ja, but the only thing they are ever likely to fall over is a gravy train trough and one anothers snouts…
23 Nov 2012, 14:49 pm
@Transformation-15: BTW, what happened to all the lovely lolly that Gumede & Co were going to throw at the Kinks, or did that also fall through?
The last I heard from them was somewhere around August 16th or so…
23 Nov 2012, 14:54 pm
@ufo-1: Mitch packed up his life to move to Africa on a multi-year contract, only to be fired on trumped up charges because the Lions knew they were being relegated and couldn’t afford to let him go legally. If he takes the money they promised him, I don’t see why anyone should hold it against him
23 Nov 2012, 15:49 pm
So Mitch gets the money – like i predicted. Those f@rkin imbeciles at hillbrow park are even dumber than i thought. Who’s running that place …. Lloyd christmas and harry?
23 Nov 2012, 15:56 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-17:
hey Bakks…
of course you’re a free man, in a free country and free to hate whomever you please…
but… (always a but hey… and sometimes just a butt… )
hatin’s the easy way out… it’s the lazy man’s response… it’s the the dead fish washing downstream… it’s the thoughtless surrender of your intellect to the most base human emotions…
and you’re better than that… imo…
so put in some fuckineffort and stop the hatin’…
let the likin’ and lovin’ come later… but at least stop the hatin’… you weren’t a hater when you first joined keo…
plus it’s a waste of energy best used in more positive pursuits…
of course you’re welcome to ignore the above… as was i to post it…
23 Nov 2012, 15:58 pm
@gonzo-21:
I’m not anti Mitch at all… said many times the players should hardenthefuckup… rugby is a tough game and tough training has always been a part of it… IMO… many ex-players will speak of running the stadium stairs etc…
so yeah… i’m with you as far as this being a ‘typical’ saffa conspiracy against JM… i was happy that he won and said so on this forum…
however… I’m all for clean breaks… and as he now does have another job I reckon he would earn more respect by simply calling it quits with the Lions…
I also believe that by serving two masters he will be unable to give either 100 per cent…
but maybe that’s just me…
23 Nov 2012, 16:15 pm
@gonzo-21:
True and well summed up
@ufo-24:
With you there, maybe it’s just to ram his point home and might soon leave anywat
23 Nov 2012, 16:33 pm
@ufo-23:
always a paragon of sensibilty and almost boundless empathy you are, ufo.
i salute you, sincerely.
ja, i will try to lighten up a little and laugh more. i dont do that often enough these days and am too pessimistic and negative for my good, and the good of others.
they do make me deeply unhappy and violenty angry (the lions exec specifically in this instance) but i could still be a better and more reasonable man.
cheers boet.
23 Nov 2012, 16:47 pm
as do i salute you Bakks… you’re a top human being…
go well boet…
23 Nov 2012, 17:29 pm
Congratulations and good luck to Akkers as well
Hopefully he can get a squad ready that can compete in the relegation match and do well
Maybe the players will settle now that this off field saga is behind them
23 Nov 2012, 17:38 pm
@BrumbiesBoy-20: Hmmmmmm…….no reply again.
I take it it’s fallen through.
23 Nov 2012, 17:47 pm
@BrumbiesBoy-29:
That was a mess
Last report I saw they were issuing threats to get some of it back, but all claims were refuted by the Lions management, for whatever they are currently worth, but bottom line, no more lolly from them.
someone closer to the Lions or better versed may prove what I said wrong or outdated, but that was the last reports I saw on the matter
23 Nov 2012, 17:57 pm
@nortierd-30: Yeah, thanks, but I meant the promised sponsorship of the Kinks once they got granted Super Rugby status.
I have an article somewhere about this Lou Ichikowitz or whatever his name (RG’s sidekick) saying how Gumede-TAC were going to invest heavily in Eastern Cape “but only on condition of them being granted SR status”.
Will dig that article out over the weekend.
23 Nov 2012, 18:01 pm
Looks like they are mostly full of hot air
Kings are going to struggle to get big sponsors and decent players with the threat of relegation after 1 year hanging over them
Not a ideal situation for them to be in
23 Nov 2012, 18:54 pm
There once was a coach named Mitch, The lions were in a ditch, They needed mitch so they made a switch, CC cup was what they reached, but things got sour, training with 10 peosklappe an hour the players decided to snitch, Needless to say the lions became Mitch’s *****.
23 Nov 2012, 19:28 pm
Money money money Courtesy of ABBA
23 Nov 2012, 19:47 pm
@ryecatcher-34:
If some of the rumors going around is true, he might prefer gimme,gimme,gimme a man after midnight
23 Nov 2012, 20:33 pm
I read a while back that he likes it here in SA and wants to stay here.
24 Nov 2012, 03:14 am
Golden Loins…. *facepalm*
24 Nov 2012, 03:15 am
@nortierd-35: That rumour is being spread about YOU, pilgrim… (Just so you know, of course.)
24 Nov 2012, 06:47 am
Mitchell is on a plane to Sale Sharks for next weeks game…….missed Gloucester today, so will be at Sale Sharks team debrief Monday.
Lions sucking the hind *** again.
Is there not anyone ther that can think beyond tomorrow?
This Lions Challenge will be as interesting as watching the Ellis Park grass grow. No wonder Mitchell is out of there, which players will join him at Sale Sharks now?
24 Nov 2012, 07:02 am
@TheTackler-38:
Thanks for the…….oops, almost said heads up, don’t want to fuel the fire, let’s go with thanks for the warning.
24 Nov 2012, 11:08 am
i_love_u_bakkiesbotha you show above how insanely emotional you become about things. I now understand why you hurt so badly that the ABs are streaks ahead of the Boks. Chill dude
24 Nov 2012, 11:12 am
@Cane 13 great post, had not thought of it like that. Mitch was superb as England forwards/assistant coach. But he seems virtually a dictator when running his own show, gets offside with too many people.
24 Nov 2012, 11:15 am
@nortierd-35: lol
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