Firstly let me say this, The Saint is no Saint, and everything I say must be taken with a little laugh and a lot of patience….

Enough is enough, the Lions have messed up my whole Superbru season…how the hell am I supposed to predict exactly what margin they are going to lose by next week? For the uninformed, this my way of joking….

Naïve…as defined by a dictionary:

1. Lacking worldly experience and understanding
2. Showing or characterized by a lack of sophistication and critical judgment
3. Stresses absence of complexity, artifice, pretentiousness, or dissimulation\

Naïve…as defined by the Saint:

1. Dick Muir
2. The Lions Rugby Team
3. Lions Rugby Management

Before anybody rubishes my rant, I have to say that I’m not Anti-Lions, I am a concerned South African Rugby Supporter, and it hurt to see what I saw today!

It is time to say what has to be said. Today, the Lions were a disgrace to South African Rugby, and I cannot see one good reason why they shouldn’t be replaced by the Southern Kings in the 2011 version of Super Rugby, should they continue to deliver this kind of performance.

I have been badgered non-stop by a multitude of Lions supporters because of my stance on the Lions, even on this blog, people have left this web site completely because of an inability to accept reality.

Let me make it clear, not all Lions supporters are guilty of this, but those who are guilty, you know exactly who you are.

“All Out Running Rugby”, Dick Muir’s apparent blueprint for the Lions going forward, has to be the single most, uneducated, moronic and undeniably stupid stance ever taken by a coach in regard to a struggling team that he has just taken over.

Every week we hear the PR bullshit that all Lion supporters so desperately want to believe.

“Nah, the spirit in the camp has never been better.” or “I feel that we have definitely made progress.” or “You just wait and see.”

How can a team’s spirit remain true if they are humiliated weekend after weekend? How can you call anything progress, if your team hasn’t even mastered the two basic fundamentals of Rugby…namely attack and defense? What are we waiting to see, Loffie had supporters wait for years, and now Muir is just continuing the trend?

Defense is a personal thing, it is a one on one exercise which can be made more effective by involving a structured team approach. In this regard both the coach and the players are equally to blame. There is no structure to the Lions team, it seems that the players have no idea what to do 70% of the time, in fact, I doubt if any of the current players can even communicate without drooling on themselves. There is no effort, no commitment, and worst of all, no pride in the way that they conduct their approach to the game.

Muir seems to be the worst possible thing to have happened to the Lions, he has no pendant for structure, he apparently believes running can solve all problems and the coaching team he has assembled is inadequate, inexperienced and not in a position to turn fortunes around. The mere fact that Johan Ackerman played rugby for 100 years, doesn’t mean that he knows anything about coaching.

The Lions tight-5, albeit somewhat inexperienced, is a solid enough entity, yet they are man-handled week in and week out. Grown men, playing like pansies, the WP light 5 at their worst wouldn’t have stood for it…

The backs run around aimlessly, desperately trying to run everything from anywhere, unfortunately, they are not talented enough to get away with that approach for any length of time.

The mere fact that Muir is involved with the Springboks makes me so worried I am beside myself.

Yes, the players are not all up to Super 14 standard, but the Reds were in exactly the same position when this season started, but they went on to prove that you CAN slay giants, you just have to cut down the beanstalk first.

If Muir is reading this….. Dick, I used an analogy, it means you have to start at the beginning, do the basics right, teach them to pass and to tackle, those are your main problems.

There is absolutely no excuse for being pathetic, I don’t mind if the Lions lose, as long as they seem unhappy about it, and then try to change things around. Which is currently not happening!

If the Lions don’t start making work of their deficiencies, I would have no objection to the Kings claiming their place in 2011. Because it would be much more enjoyable seeing Cheecky Watson trying to explain a 100-point losing margin, instead of Cobus Grobbelaar stuttering out another ill-conceived PR Excuse.

I certainly hope you have read this Article carefully and do not jump to the unnesessary conclusion that this was an attempt to belittle the once proud Lions Rugby Union or their often still proud supporters.