NEW PRIDE OF LIONS
STEPPING UP: SWYS DE BRUIN TO REPLACE ACKERMANN
Ellis Park outfit announce a seamless transition of power.
The Lions ensured they will retain much-needed continuity after they appointed Swys de Bruin as the successor to outgoing coach Johan Ackermann. De Bruin served as backline coach for the last four years under Ackermann, who will link up with Gloucester following the completion of this year’s Super Rugby tournament.
De Bruin will name the new forwards coach at a later stage, but doesn’t want his appointment to take anything away from the major tasks still lying ahead in Ackermann’s last few games in charge – facing the Sharks in Durban this weekend, followed by the play-offs.
“I am thankful for the trust the board of directors put in me and look forward to the challenge,” said De Bruin.
“For now though we are still totally focused on our campaign in the 2017 Super Rugby season.”
Chief executive officer Rudolf Straeuli said the Lions Rugby Company was proud to announce the appointment of De Bruin as head coach as well as the retention of a number of key players.
“The company is pleased to announce that De Bruin has put pen to paper for the position of head coach at the Lions.
“We believe it will bring continuity and stability within the different teams in the various competitions we are taking part in.”
The following senior players will remain at the franchise ensuring limited loss and player movement within the Lions: Warren Whiteley, Albertus Smith, Andries Coetzee, Andries Ferreira (renewed), Anthony Volminck, Aphiwe Dyantyi, Corne Fourie, Courtnall Skosan (renewed), and Cyle Brink.
Ackermann remained modest about what made him a great coach.
“I hope people don’t mind but I’m not at ease speaking about what made me successful or not, I find it difficult to speak about myself. All I did was to try to run matters smoothly,” he said.
Gaining the trust of his players and creating an environment where they cared for one another, Ackermann said each coach has his own ideas.
“I think each guy has his own style and philosophy, so for each guy there’s various reasons and avenues. It’s not to say I found the correct way or not,” he said.
Hosts believe they have the measure of high-riding Lions.
Sharks lock Stephan Lewies will be playing his 50th Super Rugby match on Saturday against the Lions at King’s Park and is looking forward to the stern examination he will face against the best team and arguably the best second-rower in the country at the moment in Franco Mostert.
“The Lions have huge confidence, with all their Springboks and how well they played in the Tests, so we’re playing against the best, we’ll see how we go and see if we’re up there.
“Franco Mostert has played fantastic rugby for the last couple of years, he has taken his chances and used them amazingly well. So it will be a good challenge to measure myself against him – that’s why we play rugby,” Lewies said yesterday.
Regardless of the result on Saturday, the Sharks are in the quarterfinals and, with the complicated permutations meaning they could be better off losing to the Lions, especially if the Hurricanes manage to beat the Crusaders, their focus is more on ensuring they are in good shape to play knockout rugby.
But their emphatic defeat two weeks ago against the struggling Bulls is indicative of the inconsistency they have struggled with all season and they obviously need to put in a much better performance this weekend.
Lewies tried to put a positive spin on their inconsistency, however.
“Whenever we’ve had a bad game this season, the next match has been fantastic and we need to get back into our rhythm and winning ways again. After this it’s the quarterfinals, so we need some momentum because there are no second chances, it’s do-or-die,” Lewies said.
The way the Sharks played against the Lions at Ellis Park on April Fool’s Day – they lost 34-29, but would surely have won were it not for their own ill-discipline and the controversial decisions of the officials – has given them the belief that they have the measure of a team that has not been beaten by South African opposition in 15 matches.
“There’s no extra motivation needed after our last game against them, we take real confidence from that and the way we played. We really enjoyed that game, but the scoreboard is what counts and obviously we didn’t enjoy losing. So we owe it to ourselves to be on the right side of the result this time,” Lewies said.