Lions revive Jozi pride
27 Oct 2011
The Lions have given their long-suffering fans something to smile about.
Egoli is buzzing.
And no, I’m not speaking about the ANCYL march for ‘economic freedom’ that has taken over the streets on Thursday or the clatter of the continuous construction in all parts of the city. There’s a buzz of fresh optimism amongst the Joburg locals – white, coloured and black – as they look forward to the rugby this Saturday.
Their team – the Lions – will face the Springbok-laden Sharks in their first Currie Cup final since 2007. But the end of a four-year absence from a domestic final isn’t the cause of this revived pride. It’s the belief that the Lions can beat the visiting Durban side to win their first Currie Cup title in 12 years.
***
I arrive at Johannesburg Stadium on Wednesday morning, an hour early for the media press conference. The Lions are hosting a jersey signing session for their fans, who have surprisingly showed up in numbers in New Doornfontein despite it being a work day. I see about 300 people queuing up to meet their local heroes on the side of the fields. The players are seated under MTN branded marquees – even with red ropes suggesting they’re the town celebrities.
Doppies la Grange gets up from the table to get some water – it’s 25°C in the shade after all. ‘Doppies – ek weet ons kan maklik by 15 punte wen op Saterdag [Doppies – we can easily win by 15 points on Saturday],’ shouts one fan as the centre walks past. La Grange replies with cheeky smile.
I approach the outspoken man, who dons a Lions jersey already signed by the players. He could easily be in his mid-50s. ‘I’ve been a Lions supporter all these years, and I’m damn proud that the team is starting to perform again,’ he tells me.
‘So you really believe the Lions can beat the Sharks, even with seven World Cup Boks coming back in to the side?
‘Why not?’ he replies. ‘The Lions have performed very well this season and they have continuity in their selections for these playoff games. The Sharks have their Boks back, but rushing them into the team can be a disadvantage.
‘Look at WP. They got their Boks back, but they didn’t play as a team and we [the Lions] beat them. Imagine how those young Province okes must feel – the ones who helped the team qualify for the semis and were dropped to make way for the Boks. You need to keep that team chemistry.
‘The Sharks struggled in the first half against the Cheetahs. And if they do so against us, they’ll have big problems. The Sharks can come with their big names. We have nine future Boks in our squad! Josh [Strauss], Elton [Jantjies],Michael [Rhodes], you name them. We can beat them as a team!’
The man’s speech is met with a few cheers from the other supporters still waiting in line. The optimism is rife alright.
But I get a feeling – win or lose – that the Lions have already made their supporters proud.
A lady walks up to John Mitchell for a signature and says: ‘Here John. I’ve saved a special spot just for you.’ This was followed by several hugs and handshakes from other fans. Clearly the Kiwi coach has won over the locals’ hearts. And it seems Joburg has a special place in his heart too.
‘I’m proud of my team and the way they’ve played in this year’s Currie Cup. And I wanted to take this opportunity to spend this special time with the fans,’ said Mitchell. ‘The Lions have always been a proud rugby team. And my main aim is to restore that pride. We’re definitely progressing, but we still have a long way to go. The important thing is that we are on the right track.’
And as Mitchell continues to steer the Lions into the right path, he can know he has the backing of his supporters – who have re-emerged with this fresh sense of pride.
By Gareth Duncan, in Johannesburg
333 Comments
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28 Oct 2011, 09:02 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-298: If the poachers stay away and the youngsters keep improving…. we will win plenty. Province should look at this model. Stop giving out this silly contracts to so called senior players while the youngsters do the job just for them (seniors) to pitch up “look I’m here give me my jersey back”. That’s why people like Sadie, JJ and Cronje leave. JDJ will not stay long if this trend continue.
28 Oct 2011, 09:05 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-298: That’s a lot of hurt and bitterness in just three short paragraphs. You sound like a ray of sunshine.
28 Oct 2011, 09:05 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-299: but you made the 1/4 finals, the last 8 teams, you did not progress any further… hence tied for 8th spot..
simple ne?
28 Oct 2011, 09:08 am
@ufo(ufo)-279:
They do make money from the soccer already..
It’s all explained in the latter half of the comments below by David_S…
http://www.ruggaworld.com/2011/10/17/lions-say-no-to-soccer-city/
28 Oct 2011, 09:08 am
@HHS(Hop Hop Spinnekop)-301: I will STOP supporting Wp if they let JDJ go! he is the future of Bok rugby nevermind Wp rugby at centre! It is time for Wp to Make the right choices.
In my opinion there is one buy they cannot go without: Francois Hougaard. This guy needs to play his rugby at Wp no matter the cost. He has the right mentality… I just fear that the laid back outlook of the Wp culture may affect him..
Then put in a huge offer for the Du Plessis brothers and we destroy everything for 5 years!! Hehehehe
28 Oct 2011, 09:10 am
The Sharks’ game plan must be pretty simple:
Get to Jantjies as fast and as often as they can, the Lions’ back line may expose the Sharks back five IF gets enough good ball and the altitude sure to make it real bad for the Sharks chasing them.
The Sharks will have to attack the Lions’ half back combo at all cost!
28 Oct 2011, 09:12 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-303: Well actually not…. All teams who won their respective pools lost in the 1/4 bar NZ…. So it is not as simple as that..
But if you keep this up I will remind you that you won a WC Without playing the bokke.. like you did to us from 2007 – 2011……
28 Oct 2011, 09:14 am
@HHS(Hop Hop Spinnekop)-301:
Sadie left because he was not ‘guaranteed’ the 13 jersey over Springboks Jacque Fourie and Juan De Jongh… a bit rich don’t you think from the green-horn!
And JJ left because WP could simply not match the huge amounts the Bulls were offering him… he hasn’t yet warranted that expenditure either despite a few ‘good’ games in the CC!
28 Oct 2011, 09:14 am
@HHS(Hop Hop Spinnekop)-301:
JdJ isn’t going anywhere
It’s the young players like Sadie, JJ, L. Cronje, Hoffman, Bosh etc who leave WP!
28 Oct 2011, 09:15 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-307: we would have wiped the floor with the Bokke, seeing as we did that to Aussie one can only imagine what the score would have been against a team Aussie beat (something we also heard from 2007-2011)
eish, I shudder just thinking about it
28 Oct 2011, 09:23 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-308: Do you know something we don’t? Did you see the amount that was offered to JJ? Regarding Sadie… why is he not “guaranteed” as spot in that number 13. He’s got all the attributes for that jersey and his partnership with JDJ showed it a few times. I see it’s because a senior occupies that spot. Sadie did well one the wing too… oh wait another “senior”. Take a tip from JM’s book. Butch on the bench, Jantjies on the field. If you watched some CC you would have seen if it was not for some Sadie magic, the Bulls would have lost last week against the Lions and not Province.
I you know what I mean. Do you think Gary Van Aswegen will stay long in the “shadow” of Peter Grant?
28 Oct 2011, 09:32 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-310: Like you would have wiped the floor with the french??
28 Oct 2011, 09:33 am
@HHS(Hop Hop Spinnekop)-311: rassie and AC explained some of the lingering questions after they lost to the lions. sadie wanted a “guarantee” on the 113 jersey…jj got a moerse offer from the nulle and wp thought it was obscene and couldn’t match it. it’s no big secret.
28 Oct 2011, 09:34 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-312: you loving the taste of bait hey
28 Oct 2011, 09:38 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-314: He’s a master baiter.
28 Oct 2011, 09:40 am
Wp team for next year that I want to see:
15. Gio Aplon. He has that ability to turn a game. is good under the high ball and tackles well
14. Shadow. Just because we spent the money on the oke..
13. Juan De Jongh. He is the future for sa rugby at 13.
12. Jean de Villiers. I would have liked him to leave and Jaque to stay.
11. Habana. Ditto Shadow.. Would have loved to see the back of him..
10. Catrakilis. Peter grant must go big in japan and stay there.
9. Duvenhage for a lack of other options
8. Duane Vermeulen. Underestimated in the work he does which should be that of a tight five.
7. Schalk Burger. Captain and time he win some silverware.
6. Heinrich Brussouw… Why not??
5. Andries Bekker. The next Matfield in my opinion
4. Elstadt. How did we buy Lobbertds?? WTF?
3. Brok Harris ( Although some money should be spent in 1 -3
2. Deon fourie / Tiaan Liebenberg…
1. Wicus Blaauw.
28 Oct 2011, 09:41 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-313: sorry… not that good of a web crawler to read all these articles. I still think the WP boys could have tried harder to keep Sadie. Oh well…. time will tell on these moves.
28 Oct 2011, 09:43 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-303: Nope silly. Tied for 5th.
Where did you learn to count?
28 Oct 2011, 09:46 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-316: You’ll have to wait till February for a Province thread, bud.
This is Lions country.
28 Oct 2011, 09:46 am
@HHS(Hop Hop Spinnekop)-311:
Guaranteeing Sadie (22) a position over Fourie (28) (still one of the better 13′s in international rugby) not too mention Juan De Jongh (23) is simply absurd… either he’s overly arrogant or more than likely another case of agent’s ‘feeding the ego’ of their young players for their own greed… definitely the case of with Jason Smith and JJ!
“Do you know something we don’t? Did you see the amount that was offered to JJ? ”
From Rassie’s mouth… you should read Ruggaworld…To lose a guy like JJ [Engelbrecht], who came through the system, is very disappointing, but we just could not afford what they [the Bulls] offered him.
“I believe Gerhard [van den Heever] will add another dimension to our team,” he added.
“If you lose some players in JJ [Engelbrecht] and Johann Sadie, but keep Nic Groom, Louis Schreuder and Gary van Aswegen and you get players like Demetri Catrakilis, bring Rynhardt Elstadt through, bring Eben Etzebeth through… then it’s not so bad.
“I can tell you now people would not have been happy if I guaranteed those two what they were asking for. I can’t guarantee a guy he will have the No.13 jersey, that is not fair to Juan de Jongh, Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers,” he commented.”
“
28 Oct 2011, 09:48 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-320:
Agents like Jason Smith in the age of pro rugby are the devil incarnate for youngsters who’ve not yet taken their training wheels off…
28 Oct 2011, 09:54 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-260:
this is one you dont want to brag too much about pops…dodgy win and all that…
@ufo(ufo)-267:
jeezuz!
now you’ve got me choking for a lions win too hehe
28 Oct 2011, 09:56 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-320: Very interesting.
28 Oct 2011, 09:57 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-316: No Jaque Fourie??
28 Oct 2011, 10:04 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-320: Did they also guarantee him that he’d have to spend most of his time clearing out the tackler on the ruck when Wynand bashes the ball up?
28 Oct 2011, 10:06 am
My Stormers team for next year
1. Blaauw
2. Liebenberg
3. Brok
4. Elstadt
5. Bekker
6. P.Louw
7. Burger (C)
8. Vermeulen
9. Dewaldt
10. Grant
11. Habana
12. JdJ
13. Fourie (VC)
14. Van Der Heever
15. Aplon
16. Deon Fourie
17. Kritzinger
18. Etzebeth
19. Koster
20. Groom
21. Gary van Aswegen
22. JDV
They should convert JDV to a utility back/super sub on the bench. He can cover a whole host of positions.
28 Oct 2011, 10:09 am
@Morne for DOR(stormersboy)-325:
I think his agent omitted that part
28 Oct 2011, 10:12 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-326:
I doubt it will be too far off that… with a bit of rotation with the remaining youngsters…
28 Oct 2011, 10:14 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-324: Its a tuff call. My reasoning is this. He leaves to play in Japan which means money is his sole decider what he plays for. If he plays the whole year he cannot be thinking of winning anything in a Wp trui and he is probably not commited to the Wp cause.. same as Peter grant. And then these players are the fisrt to moan about a long season…. They wont complain though when they get paid heaps for it…
So yes i call go with the future. i would have consisdered Putting JDJ as 12, but ultamitely believe he is a 13.. maybe JF can play 12…
28 Oct 2011, 10:17 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-328: Yes guys like Catrakilis, Schreuder, Carr, Kolisi, Stephen Kitshoff, Malherbe, Brache, Poolman can rotate with the bench or starters.
28 Oct 2011, 10:18 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-329: Fair enough.
28 Oct 2011, 10:20 am
@Provvas(Provvas)-329: I guess it is similar to Richie McCaw and Carter’s sabbatical clause which is built into their contracts. Player such as Jaque are that good that they can negiotate such terms. I still think he is a key player for Stormers and Boks.
28 Oct 2011, 18:30 pm
I said a couple of months ago people are forgetting a very talented young center who in my mind has given Sadie the space and time to operate in – Timmy Whitehead.
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