The Golden breed of new Lions
The Lions have literally flattened every team put before them in the competition – picking up eight bonus points from 10 unbeaten matches in the process – but things could have been very different, had the younger players not taken the chances handed to them.
The Lions faced a mass exodus of senior players after the Super Rugby season, with the likes of Lionel Mapoe and Elton Jantjies (Japan) and Armand 'Akker' van der Merwe (France) opting to continue their careers overseas. Warren Whiteley was with the Springbok training squad while Francois de Klerk and Corné Fourie headed back to Nelspruit to rejoin the Pumas for the Currie Cup, which forced Ackermann and his coaching staff to blood fresh faces.
"In some cases we were forced to make the changes due to injuries. If you look at the centres, we probably would not have developed Ruan Janse van Rensburg if Harold Vorster had not picked up his injury. He would have joined Howard Mnisi and Nicolaas Hanekom as our centres, but he grabbed that opportunity when the chance presented itself..
"Ruan Combrink's injury opened the door for Anthony Volmink, and even though he is not a youngster, he struggled for form and took his chance over the last few games. So some changes were injury related and others were forced [because of other factors]. In the loose forwards – Warren was with the Boks, Derick Minnie was injured, Warwick Tecklenburg went to Japan and we suddenly only had Jaco Kriel left from the normal faces – which meant that we had to develop three new loose forwards until Warren returned.
"Then there was a time when Jaco was injured and we ended up playing with no regular loose forwards. However, I am grateful that we were forced into developing the new faces because we could be sitting with the same situation next year [regular players not participating in the Currie Cup], and now we have the faith in the players coming through," Ackermann told rugby365.
While the Lions went through the round-robin phase unscathed, Ackermann was quick to point out that all was not as easy as it seemed for the Johannesburg outfit.
"We didn't start well and weren't playing good rugby at the beginning of the competition, which could have come down to the changes we underwent post-Super Rugby. So it took a few weeks for the newer guys to slot in. Then we had Vorster's injury and had to change the midfield again and it was only about midway through the competition that we started to play really good rugby.
"I am very satisfied with achieving an unbeaten run. Then if you look at all the youngsters – Dylan Smith at prop, Malcolm Marx at hooker, Lourens Erasmus at lock [due to Martin Muller's injury], Stephan de Witt at loose forward, Jaco vd Walt at flyhalf, Ruan Janse van Rensburg at centre – I feel the Currie Cup has already been a success purely because of the number of new faces we have developed and increased our depth. But I know that emotionally and from a supporters point of view, it won't be a success if we don't give ourselves the opportunity to win the competition," he added.
Looking ahead to the semi-final, Ackermann and his coaching staff faces tough selection decisions, based on the success of their entire squad.
"The guys who have played most of the tournament will have the inside lane into selection but there were some players who really picked up their game [against Griquas], like Albertus Smith, Jacques Nel and other individuals who really played well.
"I think we achieved what we wanted to in that game [against Griquas], we gave some Under-21 players exposure to get an idea of what senior rugby is all about and we wanted to give a few regulars a bit of a break before we go into this massive game. So selection is definitely hard right now but we have to consider the other nine games and those players are a little ahead of the pecking order," he stated.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
@Tauriq365
@rugby365com
