Gary gold likens the Ackerman Lions & Meyers Bulls to himself.

Lloyd Burnard - Sport24

Cape Town - Sharks coach Gary Gold has likened the success of the Lions in Super Rugby this season to that of the Bulls during the Heyneke Meyer era.

In terms of playing styles, Johan Ackermann's Lions have very little in common with Meyer's Bulls side that won the title in 2007. 

Meyer was also a part of the Bulls in an executive coaching role when they won Super Rugby in 2009 and 2010.

The Bulls back then relied on a forward-driven game and the boots of Derick Hougaard and Morne Steyn for their success while the Lions are an attacking unit with the ability to hurt their opposition from anywhere on the field. 

Gold's comparison was more to do with seeing the results of backing a coach and a group of players at a franchise. 

Meyer had joined the Bulls as head coach in 2000 and they finished second-bottom on the log with one win all season.

Then, in 2002, the Bulls finished bottom of the log without a win.

Meyer then spent some time with the Bulls' Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup sides before he was back at the Super Rugby helm three years later.

This time he would have a major impact.

He guided the Bulls back-to-back Super Rugby semi-finals in 2005 and 2006 before winning the title against the Sharks in that unforgettable final in Durban in 2007.

"I think they’re (the Lions) a product of what us as coaches have been saying for a long time," said Gold after watching his side smashed 37-10 in Johannesburg on Saturday. 

"This Lions story is so similar to the Bulls story under Heyneke … a slow start, difficult conditions in the beginning and the people and the group get backed and this is what you can grow to.

"I can’t understand how people don’t understand that that’s how great sports teams are formed.", said Gold. 

(So you are asking us to back a useless coach like you- just because other coaches had slow starts? )

"They’re a group of players and coaches who have been together a long time and they’ve had their tough times. 

They had two very tough years in the beginning but they stuck together … as the Bulls did with Heyneke … and they grew into a great team."

Gold-labelled  the Lions as "outstanding" and 

said that he thought they could stay in the 

competition until the very end.

"They always say if we could bottle confidence 

we’d make a lot of money and this is a team who

 have great confidence, play a great brand of 

rugby and are well coached," said Gold.

"They are a good team and I think they can go

 all the way."

The Lions have secured a home quarter-final.

There is one fortunate in the comparisons made.  Meyer coached under circ umstances preventing the playing of a comprehensive game plan and never adjusted when circ umstances changed.  He also got married to the idea of the same 2004 game plan of the Bulls and when he used that game plan - together with players he selected on reputation basis in 2014 and in the 2015 WC - it misfired badly.   

Ackerman decided that the “stampkar” rugby so admired by Meyer has limited scope for success and  took youngsters and coached them to play comprehensive rugby with a far better impact than other SA teas have made in 2016.   He is putting a lie to the statement of Meyer that “SA does not have talented backline players”.

Finally – it showed further that Meyer was barking up the wrong tree when he did not select a single Lions player for the WC squad last year.  

It really is wrong to mention the two coaches in the same article – Meyer is a “stampkar” coach – Ackerman a real rugby coach.    

 

 

Gary Gold strikes me as someone who tries to explain things to himself after they happened. He has not plan A, or plan b.
When he was Springbok forwards coach under P divvy- he said that all up and under are 50/50 balls as long as the chase is good. 
He does not factor in that not all up and under are well placed- so it is much less than 50/50 in reality. 
Now his argument is that successful coaches have started slowly and built great teams. However most that flop at the beginning remain flops.
Jake White won the tri-nations in his first or 2nd year. Nick Mallet did well right away- as did other coaches. 

A load of codswallop. Great coaches like Jones and White have an immediate impact. Anybody who waits two years to produce the goods with a team stocked with competitive players, is a loser. The Lions took time because their players needed to grow.

 Gold is trying to prolong his stay at the Sharks with this absurdity. 
He thinks we're all stupid. 
It all started with Fat John Smit. The moment he came into the mix is the moment everything went south.
It's been a long time since last I saw the Sharks in such a shoddy state.
I hope the Lions offer Patrick Lambie a contract. He'll fit in nicely with us.  

CC is correct.  

After a very successful 2012 Super Rugby Season,  2013 presented serious injury problems and a schism in the team largely based on rubbish caused by Frans Steyn - the so-called language story that hit the headlines that year – which mainly was aimed at Keegan Daniel.

Smit was then appointed as CEO in an effort to get things back on track.   His first action was to terminate the contract of Plumtree and pay him out the money due for the remainder of the contract period.  He then brought in Dr Venter and ultimately Jake White.  Part of his other worst actions were the contracting at a major cost his over-the-hill pals such as Stevens, Botha and Wentzel. 

White caused havoc in the Sharks camp which ultimately forced his resignation as coach.  It was caused by –

*   favouring certain players causing a major schism amongst the players – resulting in a refusal of players to renew their contracts with the Sharks; and

*   playing of a “stampkar” game plan that drove the public away from games played at Kings Park. 

The end result as the appointment of another daft coach – Gold – and he is going nowhere fast as well.   He did bring in younger players and got rid of the garbage causing damage to the Sharks team – but those younger players needs to develop further.   However, he is not a coach who will cause further development  and they need to look beyond him for a solution.

Mozart will go daft because of the comments on White – but what he does not realize is there is a limit to what White can achieve as a coach.   Take the South Africa Montpellier team for example.  White is also a “stampkar” coach.  That type of coaching can make the teams competitive up to a point – where the wheels come off badly.      

 What in the world is ou maaaikie babbling on about. Jake White caused havoc! Jake clearly would not appreciate all the nonsense going on at the failing Sharks. Mallet and Rassie walked out of the nonsense at WP. Top coaches wont put up with it.As for Gold he gets some sympathy with Reinach gone, Lambie out, two top centers out and Willie out. That destroys the Sharks backline. Sharks have a good pack and came back hard in the second half against the Lions.
Of course it takes a Franchise time to build!!! Doesn't necessarily mean the coach has the ability to build.

 So tell me, Beandip! Would you consider the current state of affairs at the Sharks as a "building" phase?
Really?
From where I'm sitting it looks more like things are regressing further each week. It's like the Sharks are on a downward spiral that's picking up momentum.
Perhaps all that broccoli in your diet's hindered your vision ... cause as far as I can see ... there's no building going on there.
If they're not careful they'll be as poor as the Kings in no time and whether you want to accept it or not, Jake played his part in it all. 
 

 Jake White was a real backward move by the Sharks from Plumtree and that is a fact.  There is a difference between the coaches Beeno - the been idiot - mentioned and White in the case of the Sharks.  Jake was factually forced into resignation or he would have been fired.  That was not the case with Erasmus.   I am not babbling about anything - I was just repeating the newspaper reports and factual information leading to the departure of White from the Sharks.   Mallett had other problems - he was also on the point of being kicked out - since he inherited a functioning team from Du Plessis and could not properly identify players to replace retirees.  He was about to be fired anyway.  One must really wonder about the idiocy of some of Beeno's comments - they make no sense in the real worl d.         

 Forced to resign by lardy john smit who knows zip and didn't support a world class coach against a bunch of lazy underachieving senior players. Bwahahhahahahahahaha.Jake walked into a mess. Where is lardy john today one wonders.
 Ou maaaikie this is almost as bad as your support of crooked hildabeast and the perverted predator Billy goat clinton.
Face facts Sharks lost out big time with Jake's departure.

 Beeno - stop talking tripe.  The Sharks would not have had a decent squad if White stayed on as "stampkar" coach.   There were 16 players whose contracts terminated in 2014 and they refused to sign contract renewals because of White.    By the way I never was a supporter of the Clintons - you are a flaming idiot if you think so.  Although I dislike Clinton as a candidate - the Tr umpet  campaign is falling apart and Clinton will wipe the floor with him in the November election.