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Exiled Lions coach looks to rebuild career after court upholds appeal

Former Lions Coach Joey Mongalo.

Joey Mongalo will look to rebuild his life and coaching career, after being cleared on a charge of indecent assault.

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Mongalo finally won his appeal in a New South Wales District Court last Friday – a journey to clear his name that lasted 20 months.

He was charged, and convicted, for indecently assaulting a woman at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Coogee (Sydney) on 23 April 2018 – during the Lions’ Super Rugby tour.

He maintained his innocence throughout and appealed the ruling of Downing Centre Local Court.

The woman was an employee of the Sydney hotel where the Lions stayed.

Continue reading below…

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Last Friday, the New South Wales District Court set aside Mongalo’s earlier conviction.

Mongalo, whose contract with the Lions was not renewed when it expired in October this year, told Rugby 365 that he is now looking for new avenues to explore.

“Now that my name is cleared and I have a decent CV, I am hoping something will come up,” he told this website.

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Mongalo has also registered for a masters degree at the University of Pretoria next year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Z9m89gaEH/

He will continue to assist the Witwatersrand University as a defence coach – the position he held with the Lions at the time of the incident.

“It has been a tough 20 months,” Mongalo told Rugby 365, adding: “I have grown to become resilient during this period [the trial].

“This ‘season’ has put a lot of things into perspective and helped me discovered genuine friendships.”

Johannes Nthoro Mongalo was involved in five finals during his nine-year stint at the Lions – including winning three national titles with the Lions Under-19 team.

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– Jan de Koning, Rugby365

Former Scotland and British & Irish Lions Captain Gavin Hastings recently surprised a lifelong Glasgow Warriors fan:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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