Baywatch sees ‘bigger picture'

April 16 - As the Auto & General Lions struggled through their first eight matches without a win, nobody questioned the efforts and commitment of captain Cobus Grobbelaar – and he is very optimistic about the future. Considered unlucky never to have worn the Green & Gold of the Springboks, Grobbelaar insists that there is a bigger picture at Coca-Cola Park. And, that "bigger picture" will hopefully see the Lions improve on their current record of having played eight games this season and losing all of them, whilst conceding 43 tries in the process. "Look, obviously we're very disappointed with the results and our current standing on the (Super 14) log, but the big disappointment - for me - is that the results don't do justice to all the hard work that we've put in since November of last year," says the Lions skipper in an interview on www.in-site.co.za. "We've done some great work, and have some great systems in place, but we're just not producing it come the weekend." It is easy to perhaps point fingers at Grobbelaar for being overly-optimistic, but he counters: "I love rugby and it's an honour to lead this Lions team. "Sure, it would be nice to be interviewed as the winning captain (for once), but I know what we need to do... and there is a bigger picture... it's just a case of things falling into place for us and I know that will happen." Grobbelaar and co. will be hoping that things fall into this place this weekend with the Sharks heading to Johannesburg for an all-South African Derby on Saturday (kick-off 5.05pm). "We can't afford to make those same mistakes against the Sharks - they're a team that like to feed off any errors, especially turnover ball," said the man who is known in rugby circles as Baywatch. "Our aim is to beat the Sharks, but it won't mean that everything is suddenly okay... What it does mean, however, is that we are indeed on the right path and that's why a win is so important for us; it would be a step in the right direction. "We're looking forward to the game, we've had a great week at training thus far and we're all very excited about playing in front of a big crowd. There is no doubt that the Sharks will bring plenty of travelling fans with them, but it all adds to the occasion and - no doubt - the motivation."