Swys loosing the plot

Might be that He's trying to run other sides off their feet on the highveld.

Couldn't work against the Bulls but maybe against some of the Aussie and Kiwi teams after travelling. 

Sharks and Stormers would certainly struggle after the first 30 to 40 min.

Agree on Orie.

Agree, that's why it didn't work against the Bulls.

Watching highlights of Jaco Kriel, Kwagga and even Whitely , they would pop up in the wider channels and use their pace and hands. Swys seems to be duplicating the game plan but without the same personal.

Dave

This issue was discussed during the Superugby on TV.   Matfield said the Lions problems is that the locks and loosies are not contributing to the team effort and the balls that came to the backline happened when the team was on its backfoot already,   

The Lions let Erasmus go to NZ -  but he never played for the Lions either this year.  the others are pub players/   Kwagga should play 7's - and the other three loosies are not up standard.

The backline also have totally useless Mapoe and believe me Jantjies as well - Jantjies under pressure is not a nice sight to see,     .        

Swys is a skilled attacking coach ... that is where his strength lies. He's contributed greatly to the cause from behind the scenes ... with Ackermann as head coach at the Lions ... and as Rassie assistant at the Boks.

He doesn't have the makeup to lead a squad of players as it's head coach.

They should return him to where his strength lies and appoint another as head coach.

 We can't all be leaders.

CC

Watch out - Jake White is looking for  a new job - he lost out on the Stormers and is likely to target the Lions as a stepping stone to the Springboks Chief Coach job.          

Most of the players is too new to throw the ball around and be accurate at the same time. Then again, it is not just throwing the ball around the shape your back line players run along with clever accurate passing. 

I'm not sure if anybody saw how the Crusaders played last week against the brumbies, they have a few rookies in the back line but these guys are showing great composure. 

It was fantastic to watch how they broke out of their own 22, good running with the ball in both hands, had a flat player as well as delaying the pass for a player coming from depth, the passes were simple, but I stress again, it was their composure to release the ball at the right time to the right player. 

There was not 50 50 passes, and none of them were frantic. 

The lions looks to be going down this season. But I also agree that their obsession with light weight looses is going to cost them. Especially when teams keep it tight up the middle. 

Swys might be loosing the plot, but keep in mind that at the Boks it is Proudfoot who is in charge of the forwards while Swys takes care of only the backline. Who knows, maybe Swys has a limitation towards the forwards and in the absence of Ackerman, it starts to show at the Lions.

I agree with a lot of what has been said above.

Having watched the game twice, it's pretty obvious that fumbles and poor passes were the biggest contributors to the loss.

Let's look at results where their error rate is lower before we throw Swys's plans under the bus.

Really Mike...Jantjies under pressure is a sad sight? You mean unlike all the other SA 10s that regularly win games for their side  behind a set of retreating forwards. 

When you are on the back foot and under pressure in your half, most of the time all a 10 needs to do is kick for territory. It doesn't take a genius. It's conventional, easy and un complicated. 

Morne Steyn would always kick in those situations, and then some. But you don't like him either. 

So what do you want? A ten that tries to break the line from his own 22?

Fact is, Jantjies tries to attack from defensive  positions more than our other 10s. According to you, it fails more often than not. According the the stats, it's predominantly successful.

Do you think the best out of hand kicker in the country isn't able to carry out a donkey 10 kick from red and orange role? Of course he can. Any professional 10 can. Catch ball...kick ball.

He tries to counter attack. When it works it's awesome and when it doesn't then he's "cracked" under pressure.

Don't you get tired of regurgitating the same line after every Lions match? 

Pollard slam dunked 6 penalties ... his boot has been on form the last while, so giving away so many slottable penalties is stupid. 18 points came from it.

Totally unacceptable.

Relax, Swys is a genius compared to Fleck. 

Even an ignorant sod like you would have done a better job at the Stormers Draad ...

He should never have been appointed.

Is Carel du Plessis still available ? He did a decent job with the Bokke a few years ago.

John Dobson will replace Fleck as Stormers coach after the SR season .

Not convinced about him just yet. More concerning is the fact that Gert Smal is leaving.

Gert Smal is off to take over the coaching job to Jake White and the latter will be back in SA just after the WC.   That is another "piss-up in the brewery" situation.   

Blikkes 

Carl recently had a serious brain operation and one can only hope it is not incurable brain cancer.     

Dave

It is clear that DU Preez lost his temper after the match on Saturday because of bugger-ups by both Esterhuizen and Bosch.   That became clear in the post-match interview he granted.   fact is there was sound reasons for that change.

As to the Lions they have serious problems at lock and with there loosies.   Orie - like Andrews 0are useless locks and a waste of space. 

Nobody was worse on Saturday than Mapoe - and I said months ago people must watch out for Simelane as a potential Springbok center,   Glad he got a chance on Saturday.     

It is clear that DU Preez lost his temper after the match on Saturday because of bugger-ups by both Esterhuizen and Bosch.

You just love spreading misinformation, Mike.

Here are Du Preez's exact words from the post-match interview:

“I think our discipline was not good enough. We couldn’t get any momentum in the first half, we couldn’t exit properly so you are always going to be under the pump,” said Du Preez.

He added: “We showed glimpses when we had the ball, but we just couldn’t retain that possession and build the phases. We got a couple of things to work on.”

For the third week in a row, Du Preez named an unchanged team and a question was raised after the match on whether the Sharks were too predictable.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Du Preez.

“The Stormers are a quality side, they got quality individual players, so we didn’t expect that it was going to be easy.

“I don’t think that [team changes] would have made a difference, but we will probably make some changes going forward as part of our rotation policy.”

Dave, Ruan Botha is being rested, hence the Sharks lock selection for Saturday:

The other selection that could be considered strange is the one at lock. It was understood earlier in the week that Ruan Botha, the most experienced Sharks lock and one of the form tight forwards in the Durban team, was injured. However, at the Thursday morning team announcement press conference, Du Preez explained his absence from the team for Loftus by saying the former captain was being rested. Why that should raise eyebrows is because it means two inexperienced players in Gideon Koegelenberg and Hyron Andrews will be teaming up in the second row.

Part of the rotational policy, see.

Of, if you want to believe Mike, Ruan Botha is being "protected from public criticism."

Pakie

Just a question - do you know what the following means:-

“I think our discipline was not good enough. We couldn’t get any momentum in the first half, we couldn’t exit properly so you are always going to be under the pump,” said Du Preez.

Just sit down and think  for a while how and who caused in a major way the problems referred to,