8 Responses to Currie Cup: Golden Lions team announced

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  1

  Lion4ever on 14 August 2013 at 4:33 pm

  On paper, this team looks slightly stronger than the Sharks.
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  2

  Scrumdown on 15 August 2013 at 9:59 am

  1 @ Lion4ever:
  It’s just that “paper field” that’s the problem!
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  3

  Lion4ever on 15 August 2013 at 3:48 pm

  @ Scrumdown:
  Ja, pity rugby is not played on paper. But I still think the Lions will pull it off.
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  4

  grootblousmile on 15 August 2013 at 4:35 pm

  1 & 3 @ Lion4ever:
  Just exactly what makes the Lions look a bit stronger on paper to you? Is it a gut feel?

  Your No 15 to No 11 wont find a spot in another Super Rugby Franchise’s Super Rugby run-on side. Your 3 Super Rugby quality backline players are out injured (Hollenbach, Hanekom & Andries Coetzee), your No 10 had an annus horablis at the Stormers this season and just last weekend basically lost the match for the Lions against the Cheetahs. Your scrumhalf is diabolically bad… I mean Guy Cronje, for farks sakes… eina pyn!

  Your tight 5 similarly won’t make the run on side of any of the Super Rugby Franchises, bar maybe the Southern Kings (but they are out for 2014), your loosies are potent though, although led by a captain who is a penalty machine, cancelling out any real value he has otherwise.

  Your bench are made up of Vodacom Cup quality players at best.

  Now lets compare apples with apples… what does the Sharks feature…

  15 Odwa Ndungane – Ageing former Springbok
  14 SP Marais – One of the better Southern Kings players this season in Super Rugby
  13 Louis Ludik – Maybe not a perfect fit at outside centre, but he was close at times to be called in as Springbok fullback… recently
  12 Heimar Williams – Vodacom Cup quality player
  11 Lwazi Mvovo – Relatively recent Springbok
  10 Butch James – Hasbeen flyhalf who has brainfarts… but who played well as a Springbok at times
  9 Charl McLeod – Springbok candidate a year or so ago, very much off the boil but still 20 times the player Guys Cronje is
  8 Jacques Botes – Good Captain, hard player who keeps his dicipline well.. one of those unsung hero type okes
  7 Jean Deysel – Good quality Super Rugby loosie, hard as nails
  6 Brynard Stander – Rookie opensider, Vodacom Cup quality
  5 Marco Wentzel – very average lock, Vodacom Cup quality
  4 Edwin Hewitt – very average lock, Vodacom Cup quality
  3 Wiehahn Herbst – Super Rugby tighthead, touted by some to be Jannie du Plessis’ backup at the Bokke.
  2 Kyle Cooper – Great Super Rugby hooker, had a massive year
  1 Dale Chadwick – Vodacom Cup quality loosehead

  Bench…. not a shabby bench for the Sharks, bar maybe Zeilinga & Van Tonder who are both rookies trying to find their feet.

  I think the Sharks have the far superior side on paper… I think the Lions have the luxury of a more settled side who know each other better and there is a passion in the Lions, which make them dangerous…
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  5

  Lion4ever on 15 August 2013 at 4:56 pm

  @ grootblousmile:
  Maybe I am looking through red tinted glasses, but Marnitz Boshoff is a great flyhalf, and good fullback, but has the ability to kick the ball over with monotonous regularity.
  Deon Helberg is a good strong player,
  Deon Van Rensburg is a bit slow, but is a decent defender and has oodles of experience
  Robert De Bruin- I don’t know much about him.
  Dylan Des Fountaine was well regarded at the Stormers and WP before injury hit him. He is regaining some of that form.
  Jantjies- Off form, but has the ability to turn a game on its head. Has played for the Bokke.
  Cronje- Not the best scrummie around, but has a good all round game
  Willie Britz- Fast, very strong player, and the energiser bunny of the team.
  Jaco Kriel- not scared of the hard stuff, good ball carrier
  Minnie- was well disciplined last week.
  Locks- a bit green.
  Front row pretty strong and underrated, will cause some hassles to opposing teams
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  6

  grootblousmile on 15 August 2013 at 5:17 pm

  5 @ Lion4ever:
  I think passion and pure guts is on the side of your Lions… they are hungry after being shunned from Super Rugby, they want to set the record straight.

  But in the form of names on paper, the Sharks have a massive advantage…

  But the game is played with passion… and on grass, not on paper… so your side stands a fair chance on Friday at 17:05.

  Marnitz Boshoff & Deon Helberg were regulars in the Blue Bulls Vodacom Cup side… so too Lionel Cronje & Warwick Tecklenburg.
  Dylan des Fountain is OK without being spectacular, was never a regular starter at the Stormers.
  Deon van Rensburg is out injured.
  Jantjies could work himself back into Bok contention but even you have to admit he is a mere shadow of himself at present… now, right now, this weekend.
  Guy Cronje is so bad…. UJ was looking for something better in the Varsity Cup…
  Willie Britz & Jaco Kriel are great loosies… you have some talent there!
  Derick Minnie has possibilities… big ones… if he could cut out his absolute penalty prone-ness. At the moment he is a liability rather than an asset, I would not want him in my team, as much as I would not want Dean Greyling in my team.
  Lions front row is underrated, I agree. Was impressed with the way they scrummed all season, yet now that JC Janse van Rensburg is gone, it leaves a bit to be desired and Martin Bezuidenhout is another of those brainfart type okes at times… (remember the Stormers game this season where he played as lone player and singlehandedly brainfarted a loss for the Stormers near the end of the game?).

  I am not denigrating your team, that is not the intention. You said on PAPER the Lions looked stronger… and I just cannot see how you arrived at that conclusion on PAPER. In the passion stakes I would think the Lions are way up there… just like the pure unadulterated passion carried the Southern Kings through the first number of Super Rugby games this season… you guys are amped to show the world how wrong they are.

  The Lions are’nt alone as a side which is low on PAPER rating, my Blue Bulls side is a mix and match side of Vodacom Cup players and Super Rugby bench players… and on PAPER it looked for all money that the WP was going to bliksem them by 20 last weekend… which they did not, drawing 24 / 24. Guts and Passion and some talent was shown in heaps.. and guts and passion nearly triumphed over the WP PAPER names…
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  7

  Lion4ever on 16 August 2013 at 9:24 am

  @ grootblousmile:
  As, I said, I am looking at it through red coloured glasses. The Lions are a side with something to prove, as are the Sharks, but I think the Lions are relishing the opportunity to play “proper” rugby. Although the Lions did not have the lions share of possession against the Cheetahs (pun intended), they threw away a golden opportunity to win the game.
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  8

  Lion4ever on 16 August 2013 at 9:30 am

  @ grootblousmile:
  Many people view Elton Jantjies as another Earl Rose, but I think the time he had in Cape Town messed his game up terribly. Once he starts getting his confidence back, he will become the devastating player he has been. Hopefully the memory of the 2011 CC final against the Sharks, and his game that day, will be the spark that he needs to re-ignite his game.