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Lions change eight for Brumbies clash
 Mar
3, 2010 - Dick Muir made wholesale changes to the starting XV to play the Brumbies on Friday with
no fewer than eight changes. It's possible that Muir has decided that there is no hope of beating the Brumbies
and that key players need a rest so that we can go for a win in some of the next matches on tour, or
perhaps some of the players were dropped after Muir gave them a chance in the first three matches to show
what they've got.
The changes are: Michael Killian for Earl Rose at Fullback, Walter Venter for the injured Deon van Rensburg at Outside Centre,
Dusty Noble for Wandile Mjekevu at Left Wing, Burton Francis for Carlos Spencer at Flyhalf, Willem Stoltz for
Franco van der Merwe at Lock, and then a whole new front row in JC Janse van Rensburg, Charles Emslie and Kevin Buys for
Heinke van der Merwe, Hannes Franklin and Ross Geldenhuys.
The team is:
15 Michael Killian, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Walter Venter, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Dusty Noble, 10 Burton Francis, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Todd Clever, 7 Derick Minnie, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar (capt), 5 Willem Stoltz, 4 George Earl, 3 Kevin Buys, 2 Charles Emslie, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg.
Replacements: 16 Hannes Franklin, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Franco van der Merwe, 19 Robert Kruger or Jacques Lombaard, 20 Jacques Coetzee, 21 Carlos Spencer or Wandile Mjekevu, 22 Earl Rose.
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Lions change just one for Hurricanes clash
 Feb
25, 2010 - Dick Muir made only one change to the starting XV to play the Hurricanes on Saturday. Willem Stoltz was
suspended and his place is taken by George Earl, who will be making his Super 14 debut for the Lions at Lock.
On the bench we see two changes, Robert Kruger comes in for Jonathan Mokuena, and Walter Venter replaces
Burton Francis. The team is:
15 Earl Rose, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Wandile Mjekevu, 10 Carlos Spencer, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Todd Clever, 7 Derrick Minnie, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar (capt), 5 George Earl, 4 Franco van der Merwe, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Subs: 16 Charles Emslie, 17 Kevin Buys, 18 Jacques Lombaard, 19 Robert Kruger, 20 Jacques Coetzee, 21 Walter Venter, 22 Michael Killian.
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Follow the action live!
 Feb
19, 2010 - As always I will be at today's match at Ellis Park to bring you all the action live.
Follow it on this link on our forum.
Feel free to discuss the match as it happens. A few of us are also getting together at Cadac Corner before the match
for a quick braai and meet, feel free to join us if you are at the Park!
The link to the match report is here.
After the match you can also rate our players on this link,
and analysis of the match which will be
available at this link.
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Lions change three for Chiefs clash
 Feb
16, 2010 - Dick Muir announced only three changes to the Lions side that will play the Chiefs this Friday.
Todd Clever replaces Mokuena at Number Eight, while Derrick Minnie replaces Franco van der Merwe at seven,
with Franco moving to Lock in the place of Lombaard.
The few changes come as a bit of a surprise, as the starting XV was flat against the Stormers and it was especially scrumhalf Jacques
Coetzee that made an impact on the game when he came on in the second half, so it's a bit of a mystery as to why he finds
himself on the bench for this match.
Team to play Chiefs:
15 Earl Rose, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Wandile Mjekevu,
10 Carlos Spencer, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Todd Clever, 7 Derrick Minnie, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar(c), 5 Willem Stoltz,
4 Franco van der Merwe, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Reserves: 16 Charles Emslie, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg/Kevin Buys, 18 Jacques Lombaard, 19 Jonathan Mokuena, 20 Jacques Coetzee, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Michael Killian.
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Follow the action live!
Feb
13, 2010 - As always I will be at today's match at Ellis Park to bring you all the action live.
Follow it on this link on our forum.
Feel free to discuss the match as it happens. A few of us are also getting together at Cadac Corner at
around 15:00 for a quick braai and meet, feel free to join us if you are at the Park!
The link to the match report is here.
After the match you can also rate our players on this link,
and hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have done an analysis of the match which will be
available at this link.
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Muir selects his Lions to face the Stormers
 Feb
10, 2010 - Dick Muir has made up his mind about the starting XV against the Stormers on Saturday,
and as expected he has retained the majority of the players that started against the Pumas last Friday.
Muir made only five changes to the side that started (and struggled) against the Pumas, the two
Locks Luus and Labuschagne, seemed to get the blame for the struggling line-outs, as they are replaced by
Jacques Lombaard, who did look good as a replacement last Friday, and Willem Stoltz. JP Joubert starts
at 9 ahead of Jonck, which is a bit of a surprise as I would have thought that Jonck would be the place kicker.
Tonderai Chavhanga starts at right wing in the place of Dusty Noble, another surprise as Dusty was one
of our best players in the Currie Cup last year, and always gives 100% on the field. Earl Rose starts
at 15 in the place of Killian, who had a bit of a bad game against the Pumas.
All eyes will be on Carlos Spencer at Flyhalf, he was the best player last Friday against the Pumas,
and hopefully he will show the same good form this Saturday.
Starting XV against Stormers:
15 Earl Rose, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Wandile Mjekevu,
10 Carlos Spencer, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Jonathan Mokuena, 7 Franco van der Merwe, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Willem Stoltz,
4 Jacques Lombaard, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Reserves: 16 Charles Emslie, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg, 18 Todd Clever, 19 Derrick Minnie, 20 Jacque Coetzee, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Michael Killian.
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Lions struggle against Pumas
 Feb
5, 2010 - Dick Muir must be a very worried man tonight, after the Lions scraped home 24-17
against the Pumas in Witbank. With about 15 minutes to go the scores were still tied at 17-17, and
the Pumas had a few chances to take the upset victory, but luckily they didn't convert those chances
and eventually the Lions managed to score the winning try late in the second half.
Who knows, perhaps it's Muir's strategy to make the Stormers over confident for the match in a week's time,
but what we saw from the Lions on Friday night makes me think that we are in for a big hiding next Saturday.
The Lions first try was scored by youngster Wandile Mjekevu, who had no defenders in front of him down the
left touchline, and just had to catch the ball and score the try. The second try came from a blunder by the
Pumas, the Lions had a line-out 5 meters from the Puma try-line, but the Pumas stole the line-out by slapping the ball
back to their side, where Mokuena pounced on the loose ball and scored the try. The third try came from
a bit of magic by Spencer, who put in a cross field kick inside the Pumas 22, where Killian managed to
catch the ball close to the try-line, and when he was tackled he passed to Van Rensburg, who ran in for the try.
The last try came from a line-out where the forwards drove the ball over the line for replacement hooker Charles Enslie to score.
Points:
Lions:
Tries: Wandile Mjekevu, Jonathan Mokuena, Deon van Rensburg, Charles Enslie. Conversions: Chris Jonck, Burton Francis
Pumas: Tries: Ronnie Uys, Elgar Watts. Conversions: Braam Pretorius (2). Penalty: Pretorius
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Follow the action live!
Feb
5, 2010 - I'm in Witbank to bring you all the action live from this pre-season warm-up match
between the Lions and the Pumas. Just go to my forum at http://www.lionsworld.co.za/forum to
follow my comments on the game (6:30pm).
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Muir's plans more clear
Feb
2, 2010 - Dick Muir's thinking became more clear on Tuesday when the two Lions sides to play
the Leopards and Pumas in two Super 14 warm-up matches were announced.
The black team will be playing the Leopards and will kick off at 4:30pm, while the red team will play the Pumas at 6:30pm.
It can pretty much be assumed that the red team is then the favourites to start against the Stormers, and that
it will require a big effort from anyone in the black team to get into the match 22 for the Stormers game.
Carlos Spencer will get his first run in a Lions jersey, while Jonathan Mokuena has also secured a place in the
red team after a fiery match against the Bulls on Saturday. Wandile Mjekevu gets a start on the left wing after
he had a good game off the bench on Saturday, showing that Muir is willing to reward good performances, probably
also the reason that Killian starts at 15, as he also looked full of rugby on Saturday. The rest of the red team
shows no surprises, other than that Franco gets a run at 7 instead of lock, and this is a positive for me, as
I've always believed that he could be a player that can be called up for higher honours if the union picks him at
7.
Lions black team: 15 Earl Lewis, 14 Marius Delport, 13 Alwyn Hollenbach, 12 Walter Venter, 11 Trompie Notshinga, 10 Herkie Kruger, 9 Alex Koch, 8 Todd Clever, 7 Thabo Mamojele, 6 Johan van Deventer, 5 Willem Stoltz, 4 George Earle, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Hanyani Shimange, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg
Replacements - from: Hans van Dyk, Gert Muller, David Bulbring, Robert Kruger, Ruan Boshoff, Jannie Boshoff, Justin St Jerry, Pieter Engelbrecht, Henno Mentz, Shandre Frolick, Rouan Cloete
Date: Friday, February 5
Venue: Puma Stadium, Witbank
Kick-off: 16.30
Referee: Pro Legoete
Assistant referees: Stefan Breytenbach, local
Lions red team: 15 Michael Killian, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Wandile Mjekevu, 10 Carlos Spencer, 9 Chris Jonck, 8 Jonathan Mokuena, 7 Franco van der Merwe, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar (c), 5 Nico Luus, 4 Jannes Labuschagne, 3 Kevin Buys, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe
Replacements - from: Charles Enslie, Lawrence Sephaka, Jacques Lombaard, Derrick Minnie, JP Joubert, Burton Francis, Wigan Pekeur, Tonderai Chavhanga, Earl Rose, Danie Crous
Date: Friday, February 5
Venue: Puma Stadium, Witbank
Kick-off: 18.30
Referee: Jaco Peyper
Assistant referees: Pro Legoete, Stefan Breytenbach
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Follow the action live!
Jan
30, 2010 - I'm in Polokwane to bring you all the action live from this pre-season warm-up match
between the Lions and the Bulls. Just go to my forum at http://www.lionsworld.co.za/forum to
follow my comments on both games (4pm and 6:30pm).
The halftime score of the first match was 11-3 for the Bulls, our only points coming from a
penalty by Burton Francis. In the second half we made a lot of changes but the team
stayed scoreless and the Bulls crossed our try-line twice to make the final score 25-3.
In the second match, the Bulls scored the only try of the first half, by Gerhard van den Heever,
with the rest of the points coming from Morne Steyn, to make the halftime score 14-0.
In the second half the Lions managed to run in two tries, but the Bulls were dominant and
took the match 42-12.
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Muir not giving anything away
Jan
27, 2010 - Dick Muir named the two sides to play the Bulls in Polokwane
on Saturday in the Lions first pre-season matches, and didn't
really give any indication of who he regards as his starting XV at this stage.
Most of the guys that could be considered as key players are evenly distrubuted
over the two teams, as well as on the benches for the two teams.
Muir might be giving some of the fringe players a last chance in these two
matches to prove themseleves or be cut from the squad.
The teams are:
Black Team (curtain raiser): Earl Rose, Dusty Noble, Rouan Cloete, Justin St. Jerry, Shandré Frolick, Burton Francis, Chris Jonck, Jonathan Mokuena, Thabo Mamojele, Danie Crous, Franco van der Merwe, Jannes Labuschagné (c), JC Janse van Rensburg, Derek Harwood, Lawrence Sephaka.
Bench: Hans van Dyk, Nog Een, Nico Luus, Johan van Deventer, Doppies la Grange, Jannie Boshoff, Alwyn Hollenbach.
Red Team (main game): Michael Killian, Wigan Pekeur, Deon van Rensburg, Walter Venter, Henno Mentz, Herkie Kruger, Alex Kock, Todd Clever, Derick Minnie, Cobus Grobbelaar (c), Willem Stolz, George Earl, Kevin Buys, Hannes Franklin, Heinke van der Merwe.
Bench: Charles Enslie, Nog Een, David Bulbring, Robert Kruger, Alistair Siegelaar, Trompie Nontshinga/Bernado Botha, Wandile Mjekevu.
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Baywatch to lead the pride
 Jan
25, 2010 - The Golden Lions Rugby Union announced
their captain for the 2010 Super 14 season on Monday, and as expected,
Cobus "Baywatch" Grobbelaar will lead the pride of the Lions once again.
Pre-season speculation saw the names of Jano Vermaak, Franco van der Merwe,
Jonathan Mokuena and Carlos Spencer mentioned as candidates for the
captaincy, but I'm not surprised at all that the job went to tried and
trusted Baywatch. Mokuena and Spencer are both new to the squad,
and it might have been disruptive to the squad dynamics to name one
of them, while Jano is still injured so it wouldn't have made sense to name
him as captain.
Franco van der Merwe is one of the stars of the squad, and at least
certain of a start in every match, but his credentials as captain
at other levels of the game before he joined the Lions are
unknown to me.
"Cobus is a proven world class captain and we are extremely proud to
announce that he will again lead the team in the 2010 Super 14",
Director of Coaching, Dick Muir said.
"We are very fortunate to have a variety of senior players who possess
substantial leadership abilities, and are thus able to assist Cobus with
making decisions on the field. Some of our more senior players, who have
these abilities are Franco van der Merwe, Jonathan Mokuena, Doppies la
Grange, Jano Vermaak and Herkie Kruger," Muir continued.
The team will play two home matches before departing for
the away leg of the tour, where they will cross the Tasman Sea twice
before returning to South Africa for another four home and two away
matches. First they are sceduled to play two warm up games - on Saturday, 30
January against the Bulls and on Friday, 5 February against the Pumas.
The coaching staff will announce the Super 14 squad thereafter.
Cobus Grobbelaar Statistics:
Provincial caps: 90 (31 as captain)
Provincial points: 65 (13 tries)
Super 14 caps: 57
Super 14 points: 15 (3 tries)
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Wikus to return to Lions
 Jan
18, 2010 - The Golden Lions Rugby Union announced
this morning that Wikus van Heerden, former Lions captain, has signed
with the Lions from 1 July 2010 - 31 October 2012.
Van Heerden, or "Captain Courageous", as he was commonly referred to,
left the Golden Lions Rugby Union at the end of the 2006 Absa Currie Cup
competition to join the Vodacom Bulls, and thereafter moved to Saracens.
He will remain at Saracens until the end of their season on the 30 June
2010 before moving back to Johannesburg.
Van Heerden commented this morning that he is very excited about
returning to the Lions. "Since my time at the Lions I have grown as a
player and have gathered much experience at both the Bulls and Saracens.
I am hoping to utilize this experience and make an impact when I join
the Lions later this year".
The GLRU are very excited about signing Van Heerden who has spent most
of his formative rugby career with the Johannesburg based team.
"It's always good to sign a new player, but when it's a former star
player returning, it makes it a little more special. Wikus returning is
exciting, and we see this as just one more step in the right direction
for the GLRU", CEO Manie Reyneke said.
Of the various unions in South Africa, why the Lions? Van Heerden said,
"The Lions has always been a very special place to me. I spent nine (9)
years at the Lions before moving over to the Bulls. At that stage I
needed a change. With all the changes at the Lions now and with the new
people appointed, this is an exciting and ideal opportunity for me to
make the most of what is left of my rugby career. And who knows, maybe I
can be a part of a winning Super 14 or Currie Cup team while at the
Lions".
Van Heerden will join the Lions ahead of the 2010 Absa Currie Cup, where
he is expected to be a regular in the starting 15.
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Carlos Spencer signs for Lions
Jan
7, 2010 - Carlos Spencer signed a contract with the Lions and will be available for us
in the Super 14 and Currie Cup in 2010.
The 34-year old is expected to join the team for training in the next 10 days.
He has played in 35 Test matches for the All Blacks between 1997 and 2004, and scored 291 points
in his Test career.
He joined Northhampton Saints in 2005 after playing for Auckland in New Zealand between 1996 and 2005,
where he scored 608 points in Super Rugby.
Carlos might be slightly on the old side but Flyhalf is a very key position in a team and it's one of the
areas that the Lions are lacking experience now that Andre Pretorius has left the union, and the
youngsters can certainly learn a lot from Spencer this year.
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All the best for the new year!
 Jan
1, 2010 - I want to wish all the loyal visitors to www.lionsworld.co.za
all the best for 2010. May it be a year of gigantic
success for all of us, including our beloved rugby team!
The website had a spectacular year, we came close to a million hits just for the year,
missing it by about 40k. Every year sees growth, so I'm confident that we
will reach that milestone in 2010!
Looking forward: The Super 14 kicks off in February, and
our first match is against the Stormers, so
hopefully we can kick this one off with a great victory over the Bergbokke!
The Currie Cup kicks off again in June, and hopefully we will see a huge
improvement from our 6th place in the 2009 season.
Please come and join the site's forum if you haven't done so already, we chat
rugby all the time, so to come
and join us, click
here
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