Ken Borland

Last October seems a long time ago now for Lions fans as their union gets knocked from all sides, not just on the playing field but also in the boardroom.

John Mitchell, having overseen their fairytale Currie Cup triumph on October 29 last year, has now been suspended, adding to all the financial worries and the threat of SuperRugby expulsion hanging over the Lions’ heads.

To say Mitchell has an overbearing personality would be putting it mildly. There are very few people in Lions rugby who are willing to say they will be sad to see him go.

The New Zealander deserves credit for restoring pride to the Lions, but once he had done that, his limited man-management skills came to the fore and Mitchell’s old-school views on discipline and treating players like kids in boarding school eventually lost him the team.

In this professional era when even the players’ breakfasts are measured,  getting them to run a marathon around the Johannesburg Stadium athletics track just two weeks before their opening SuperRugby fixture looks pretty dumb.

Mitchell has had a simmering relationship with the media as well. While any dissenting voices amongst the team were quickly put in their place, any questions from the press that Mitchell did not approve of would lead to cold-shoulder treatment and public ridicule.

I was not the only journalist who was told “Well I don’t know what match you were watching, mate.” Mitchell seemed to take delight in cutting down the media, preferably in front of large audiences in the Lions auditorium, as he did one day to the 94.7 Highveld Stereo man, who’s question was totally well-meaning and non-confrontational. And that’s the same radio station that have been long-term sponsors and supporters of the embattled team.

The players have been the brunt of some criticism suggesting they wanted to get rid of Mitchell because they just wanted a nice holiday when it came to training.

But it took enormous courage, led by impressive captain Josh Strauss, for them to stand up to their bullying coach. There is a good spirit of hard-working endeavour at Ellis Park, as president Kevin de Klerk pointed out.

“The spirit in the camp is very good and, if you think where the Lions were three years ago, we are substantially better off now. Rugby is a dynamic business and we would love it to be a plain-sailing ship, but we fool ourselves if we think that will be the case. We will deal with the John Mitchell matter with the correct protocol,” De Klerk said.

When De Klerk says the correct protocol, he is not beating around the bush – the Lions will have to religiously stick to the straight and narrow in the disciplinary process if they are going to successfully rid themselves of Mitchell.

The 48-year-old will show the same street-fighting attitude he imbued in the Lions in challenging his suspension. Mitchell has done it before – in 2008 the Western Force’s senior players staged a similar intervention, but his watertight contract meant they could not sack him.

Which is why there has been no criticism of Mitchell spewing forth from either the players or the board, and why De Klerk has made an about-turn and stressed that the suspension was not driven by the team.

“It’s inaccurate to say it was player-driven, it was not just the players on their own. And one can’t say Josh Strauss led the complaints, that would be inaccurate too. There were a number of issues,” De Klerk said.

The reason for this is that if it was just the players that had complaints about their treatment, Mitchell could turn around and say he was merely doing his best as the coach to make them a winning team, tough-love if you like. A lot of what coaches do to their teams could be considered unfair, but would it be illegal in terms of labour law?

Fortunately, it’s not just the players and media that Mitchell has alienated. It’s sponsors as well.

Did you see a whole heap of extra Lions coverage during their SuperRugby tour this year?

No, and that’s despite the considerable amount of money that MTN were willing to pay for two journalists to travel with the team. The sponsors obviously felt that their effort would be rewarded with extra coverage for the Lions and exposure for themselves.

Unfortunately, the journalists were left to survive on the same scraps given to the Australian and New Zealand reporters … Mitchell would not go out of his way to give them anything extra.

The Lions, under pressure from all sides, desperately need good PR, so it is time they called an end to the John Mitchell era.

Lions coach John Mitchell has been suspended with immediate effect due to the complaints of the players, SuperRugby franchise president Kevin de Klerk said on Saturday.

Mitchell, the former coach of the All Blacks and Perth-based SuperRugby team the Western Force, will now face a disciplinary inquiry by the board of the Johannesburg-based franchise.

“John Mitchell has been suspended pending an investigation, after complaints from the players,” De Klerk confirmed to Reuters on Saturday.

“The complaints of the players are quite serious and it’s not just from one or two players, it’s a very substantial number which we cannot take lightly. As the custodians of Gauteng rugby, we are responsible to our staff and the well-being of our players.”

While De Klerk, a former Springbok lock, said he could not elaborate on the complaints due to the sub-judice nature of the investigation, they are believed to revolve around Mitchell’s management style.

The New Zealander has had a simmering relationship with media and sponsors, and local newspapers have reported anonymous players alleging verbal abuse by Mitchell. The 48-year-old has also publicly criticised individual players.

Mitchell joined the Lions in mid-2010 and steered them to the Currie Cup title last year, but their SuperRugby form has been poor with the Lions being South Africa’s worst-performing franchise over the last two years and set to be replaced by the Southern Kings next year.

Assistant coaches Carlos Spencer and Johan Ackermann will now take over the coaching reins as the Lions return to SuperRugby action next weekend.

The ACT Brumbies swarmed to a 34-20 (half-time 17-6) victory over the Gauteng Lions, putting themselves in pole position in the Australian Conference, in their SuperRugby match at Ellis Park on Friday.

Wing Henry Speight, with two tries, was one of the driving forces for the overwhelming victory, along with the strong running of flyhalf Christian Lealiifano and a dominant forward pack.

The Lions, who are under pressure to maintain their SuperRugby status with the South African Rugby Union having guaranteed the Southern Kings promotion next year, produced an abject display and only rallied to score two tries in the final quarter to narrow the losing margin.

“I’m very happy. The way we carried the ball was so precise, we stuck with things and we put them under real pressure in the 22. We had some great stuff going on on the gain-line and things are starting to come together that we’ve been working on,” Brumbies coach Jake White said after the match.

The Brumbies went behind early to a penalty by Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies, but struck back with a 12th-minute try by prop Ruaidhri Murphy, who ploughed over the line from a ruck set up when Speight was stopped just short of the line after bursting down the blindside wing.

The visitors fell behind again, though, as Jantjies kicked another penalty four minutes later, and the Lions held on to the lead until the 22nd minute as Lealiifano and fullback Jesse Mogg missed three kicks between them.

With scrumhalf Nic White feeding them quick ball from the rucks, the Brumbies backs were a constant threat with their direct running and changes in the point of attack and Speight grabbed his first try after White’s long pass to outside centre Andrew Smith had set up a ruck, from which Lealiifano made a half-break to present the wing with an easy touchdown.

Speight was involved again as the Brumbies scored five minutes before half-time, cutting in from his wing and breaking through the porous Lions defence and popping the ball to Smith to dot down.

The lacklustre Lions had defended poorly and kicked wastefully in the first half and started the second half in even worse fashion as they conceded two tries in the first seven minutes.

Lions fullback Andries Coetzee presented wing Joe Tomane with a welcome gift try as he failed to gather a Mogg grubber and flank Michael Hooper, having hassled the Lions all game at the breakdown, then punished them from the kickoff as he burst clear and set up prop Ben Alexander for a powerful finish.

Speight scored again for the Brumbies in the 58th minute after the Lions twice presented them with turnovers in the 22, stretching the lead to an unassailable 34-6.

The situation was made worse for the Lions in the 63rd minute when replacement centre Butch James charged into a ruck with his shoulder and was yellow-carded. But the home team finished the match as the stronger side, with centre Jaco Taute and loosehead prop Caylib Oosthuizen scoring never-say-die tries at the death, both converted by Jantjies.

“It was our worst defensive performance of the season. We weren’t effective in the tackle and they hurt us with their carry and got enough breaches. They kept hold of their ball while we lost ours and they were more effective at the breakdown. I thought Hooper was outstanding, he’s world-class, that boy,” Lions coach John Mitchell said.

But the Brumbies were the stars of the show with imposing eighthman Fotu Auelua also amongst their heroes and named man of the match.

The Lions have now won just one of their eight matches and face a daunting task when they play the pace-setting Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton on May 5.

The Chiefs will have the chance to extend their lead on top of the standings when they host the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday.

Scorers

Lions – Tries: Jaco Taute, Caylib Oosthuizen. Conversions: Elton Jantjies (2). Penalties: Elton Jantjies (2).

Brumbies – Tries: Ruaidhri Murphy, Henry Speight (2), Andrew Smith, Joe Tomane, Ben Alexander. Conversions: Jesse Mogg, Christian Lealiifano.

The Canterbury Crusaders used their forward dominance in the second half to beat the Gauteng Lions 23-13 in their SuperRugby match at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions scored their only try four minutes before half-time to claim a 13-10 lead at the break, but struggled to get out of their territory in the second half as the Crusaders’ forwards took control, using tight play and direct running.

The New Zealanders regained the lead four minutes after the break as wing Sean Maitland gleefully ran on to a lovely grubber from fullback Israel Dagg, after the Lions had suffered a costly turnover in their own 22.

Centre Tom Taylor, who played at flyhalf for much of the second half as Dan Carter was substituted after an hour upon his return from groin surgery, kicked the conversion to make the score 17-13.

Taylor then failed with a 51-metre penalty attempt, but succeeded with penalties in the 48th and 63rd minutes to complete the scoring.

“We were really disappointed with our start, we were really inaccurate. But we played with better intent in the second half after sitting back in the first half. We had good field position and we wanted to be a lot more direct and go through the middle,” Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder told a news conference after the game.

“But we absolutely let a bonus point slip because we were really inaccurate, which is frustrating.”

The Lions dominated the first half as they kept possession for long periods. But it proved a false dawn for the SuperRugby strugglers as they battled to penetrate the tight Crusaders’ defence.

There were promising breaks by the home side, but captain and flank Josh Strauss passed straight to opposition centre Taylor with the tryline in sight, and lock Franco van der Merwe was held up over the line by scrumhalf Andy Ellis.

Ruck infringements accounted for the first points of the match for both sides as Lions flyhalf Butch James (19th) and Taylor (21st) kicked penalties.

Taylor’s first kick at goal came after wing Zac Guildford had opened up the Lions defence with a mazy run and the 23-year-old All Black also scored the opening try 10 minutes later when he raced on to Carter’s slick pop-pass on the inside after centre Robbie Fruean had crashed the ball over the advantage line.

Prop Pat Cilliers scored the Lions’ only try as he burst off the back of a ruck.

“The moments after half-time were the turning point. We just didn’t control possession and we weren’t accurate enough. It’s very obvious our lineout’s not working as we’d like and it’s unacceptable,” Lions coach John Mitchell said.

The Lions have now won just one of their five SuperRugby matches this season, while the Crusaders complete their two-match South African tour by playing the Bulls in Pretoria next Saturday.

Scorers

Lions – Try: Pat Cilliers. Conversion: Butch James. Penalties: James (2).

Crusaders – Tries: Zac Guildford, Sean Maitland. Conversions: Tom Taylor (2). Penalties: Taylor (3).