Lions about to

LET’S play some rugby. Let’s focus on what happens between the four white lines.

These were the pleas of several Lions officials over the last week as the team returned to the training ground after a Super Rugby bye last weekend.

The Lions host the NSW Waratahs from Sydney at Ellis Park today (3pm kick-off).

For more than two weeks now, Lions chief executive Rudolf Straeuli has had to field questions about his head coach Swys de Bruin and his defence coach Joey Mongalo as a wave of negativity enveloped the three-time Super Rugby runners-up.

It has been a trying few weeks for the franchise. And besides the issues around De Bruin, who has been receiving help for a stress-related matter, and Mongalo, who is fighting a conviction for indecent assault in Australia, the Lions have had to deal with several of their star players being injured throughout the campaign.

Regular skipper Warren Whiteley, who is a massive cog in the Lions unit, has been in and out, and in and out, and in again this season as injuries have scuppered his competition.

Other key squad members like Dylan Smith, Marvin Orie, Kwagga Smith, Ross Cronjé, Courtnall Skosan and Aphiwe Dyantyi have all had broken campaigns for a variety of reasons.

The result has been that the Lions have battled for consistency in performance in 2019 and with six regular season games to play are in last place in the five-team SA Conference log.

They have managed just a 50 percent win rate so far – five wins from 10 matches. It appears, though, that the Lions’ top brass have spent a good