As published in SA RUGBY magazine – Feb 2010

Goals for the future.
My ultimate goal would be to win the Super Rugby tournament within the next 3 years, but we know it won’t happen overnight.  The other main aim is to get acquainted with one another as quickly as possible.  I’m new to the job and we have several new players.  It is tough in an organization that is undergoing restructuring.  We must just ensure we develop depth, and our conditioning must be of a high standard.

Their difficult draw.
We can’t do anything about the schedule.  It is a tough draw, but it can work in our favour from the aspect that we can get the guys close as a group making the tour really enjoyable for them. When we come back to Coca-Cola Park, we have to make home advantage count.

The Lions game plan.
You adapt your game plan to who you’re playing and what sort of personnel you have.  I haven’t worked with this group of players yet, so we need to be flexible.  Being able to dictate the tempo of the game will always be important, while we have to play to our strengths.

Finding a flyhalf (published before the Carlos Spencer’s signing)
The number 10 berth is wide open right now, as we have some quality players in Burton Francis and Herkie Kruger.  During the build-up we’ll be looking at who else is available and we will have it sorted out by the time the tournament starts.  We’re also pretty pleased to have a guy like Earl Rose who is versatile and has that X factor.  We’ll look to play him on 10 and 15.

The Lions lack of depth.
We’re worried about the depth as we are pretty thin throughout as far as that goes, but we have a bit of time before the Super 14 to sort that out.  It’s going to be a tough tournament for us; but to make proper progress would be good.

The loss of Jaque Fourie.
It’s not going to be easy replacing a player like Jaque, who’s probably the best No 13 in world rugby.  I’m not too fussed about having big name players.  I have looked at what we have and we have shortages, and sometimes you need to try and create and develop players of your own instead of buying big names.   We must use players who want to play for us.  We only want players who are proud of the jersey, and want to play for their team mates.