The real cost of the IP that departed the Den
OPINION: Two high-profile departures from the Lions in the last week had me wondering about the Intellectual Property the franchise has lost in recent years and if that is the reason for their failure to make the United Rugby Championship play-offs for a second successive year.
Jaco Kriel’s retirement was expected, as his body could take the batterings no more.
And there have been so many high-profile Springbok departures in recent years – often to fellow South African franchises, but also abroad.
The list is extensive.
However, Albert van den Berg’s departure, for me, shifted the focus to the coaching and administrative side.
The reasons for the departures are varied, but the length of the list is what is most alarming.
It says a lot about the state of the union if one looks at the departures from Ellis Park in the last five or six years – after the golden Super Rugby years of 2016 to 2018.
Quality coaches will attract attention and even receive offers.
It happens to all unions.
However, the dearth of world-class coaches at the Lions makes one wonder if money is really the only issue.
Perhaps the environment – as so many reports have suggested – is what is driving people away from the Den!
Below is a list of departures since 2017:
1. Johannes Nicolaas Ackermann
Having played for the Bulls, Lions, Cats, Northampton Saints, Griquas and Sharks (nearly 200 first-class games), he also featured in 13 Tests for the Springboks between 1996 and 2007 at the time, making him the oldest Bok. His coaching career started with the Lions in 2013, a revival that saw him take the Ellis Park-based outfit to two Super Rugby finals, before heading to Gloucester (at the end of 2017) and then Japan. During his stay at the Lions, he also coached the SA ‘A’ team against England.
2. Zacharia Francois de Bruin
Swys, as he is affectionately known, started his coaching career with Durban North College, previously known as Afrikaans Hoër Durban-Noord. That was followed by stints with Sharks Under-21, Natal Wildebeest, Griquas, South Africa Under-21, Sharks Academy, Under-19 and U21 – before joining Ackermann at the Lions in 2013. He also had a stint as Lions head coach after Ackermann’s departure and Springbok backline coach.
3. JP Ferreira
Ferreira, before being forced into premature retirement through a knee injury, started doing analysis for the Falcons during a lengthy rehabilitation period. Once he returned he took up the analysis position on a more permanent basis and Ferreira was offered a position with the Lions, where his role gradually changed to include coaching. When Ackermann took over as head coach of the Lions in 2012, he made Ferreira the side’s permanent defence coach as well as their head analyst – a member of the very successful coaching panel that dominated the South African landscape. Offers to move to Munster and more recently Bath followed.
4. Warren Whitely
The former Springbok captain, who took up coaching while still at the Lions to ‘repay’ the union and put back in the game, announced his departure at the end of the 2021 season and moved back to KwaZulu-Natal – where it all started. After a brief playing career with the Sharks, Whiteley had a handful of games for the Mighty Elephants and then moved to Ellis Park. He had almost 200 first-class games for the various Lions teams, followed by a brief stint at the Hurricanes in Japan. His departure from Ellis Park came after a decade and many successes in the Den.
5. Russell George Winter
After a respectable playing career that saw Winter play for the South African A, the BlitzBoks, the Lions, Cats, Sharks and more than 50 games for the Newcastle Falcons, Winter established himself as a highly regarded forwards coach. When he returned from England he took up a coaching role at the Lions, but after the 2015 season, he moved to Cape Town as the forwards coach at Western Province and the Stormers. In 2020 he moved to Pretoria to become the Bulls’ forwards coach.
6. Bafana Nhleko
Nhleko was the head coach of the Lions team that won the 2018 SA Under-21 Championship. He joined the South African Rugby Union’s coaching ranks in November 2018, as the Junior Springbok assistant coach. In February 2021 he was appointed as head coach of the Baby Boks. He started coaching at the Lions in 2013 when he was appointed the U19 head coach. He also coached the union’s domestic Challenge Cup team in 2016 and 2017 and acted as the defence coach of the U21 side in the same years.
7. Joey Mongalo
Mongalo is another defence specialist to come out of the Lions’ ranks and established a profitable career elsewhere. With a masters degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, he worked at various age-group teams at Ellis Park and then moved onto the senior teams in a stay of nearly a decade and included being part of the team that reached the Super Rugby Final in 2018 – before joining the Bulls in 2020 and then the Sharks in 2022. At the Sharks – as the Currie Cup head coach and overseeing the age-group game – his brief is to align the Currie Cup and age-group teams to the vision, values and way of play of the Sharks’ URC & EPCR group.
8. Philip Andries Lemmer
The 12-time SA wrestling champion is another man to move from the Den to the Shark Tank, having worked as the Lions’ collision/breakdown specialist and forwards coach. As a two-time Super Rugby Final assistant coach he also took a wealth of experience with him to Durban -0 where he is assisting Mongalo.
9. Hercules Christian Kruger
After a playing career that involved stints with the Sharks, Lions, Griquas and Cheetahs, Kruger turned to coaching – where he progressed to head coach of the Lions domestic Challenge Cup team and the Currie Cup team’s backline coach.
10. Neil de Bruin
The son of former Lions head coach and attack specialist Swys, Neil de Bruin was first a lower-level skills guru during Johan Ackermann’s tenure at Ellis Park, before breaking into the senior ranks as a backline coach. In 2020 he joined Ackermann at the Red Hurricanes – after his father had declined the offer to move to Japan. Neil de Bruin broke into the senior ranks alongside his father at the start of the 2019 season and the following year he retained that position at the start of the Ivan van Rooyen tenure. However, his move to Japan removed any doubt about how he is rated by other respected coaches.
11. Rupert Oberholster
Having started out as a Biokineticist and Conditioning coach at Hoërskool Garsfontein, the performance excellence, strength and conditioning expert was at the Lions for six years and some change before the call came to move to Japan – where he was first at the Red Hurricanes’ high-performance department in 2021 and then moved to the D-Rocks skills, strength and conditioning coach last year.
12. Sean Erasmus
The Paarl Boys’ High School coach moved from the Western Cape to Johannesburg in 2018 – where he was an assistant on the Super Rugby and Currie Cup teams, with defence his main brief – but his stay lasted just three years before he return to Paarl Boys. He previously also had brief stints as an assistant with the Stormers/WP and South African Rugby Union.
* Then there is the medical IP that was lost in recent years …
13. Jannie Klingbiel
Having completed his B.Sc. Hons (Biokinetics) in 1992 at North-West University, he was with the Lions from 2011 to 20231 and is regarded as one of the foremost isokinetic rehabilitation specialists – with a special interest in knee, hip, ankle and shoulder injuries. He is currently in private practice.
14. Preven Appalsamy
A product of the University of the Witwatersrand, the clinical sports physiotherapist was on the Lions’ books for many years – involved with the Super Rugby and Currie Cup teams.
15. David van Wyk
He was a physiotherapist with the Lions from 2010 to 2016.
* And finally a high-profile administrator …
16. Bart Schoeman
The experienced sports and HR manager, with a strong history in the sports industry, was with the Lions Rugby Company for almost seven years as a High-Performance Manager.
@king365ed
@rugby365com
Related
‘Why I am really leaving the Lions’
Matfield’s brutal assessment of Lions’ decline
Mutiny in the Den?
How deep does the rot run at Ellis Park?
Why Lions are staying at Ellis Park
