Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Lions and Swys de Bruin go their separate ways

Lions coach Swys de Bruin is finished with the Super Rugby club (Photo by Tracey Nearmy / Getty Images)

After seven years with the Lions, initially as an assistant coach and thereafter as head coach, Swys de Bruin will part with the Lions Rugby. This decision is mutual, and both Lions Rugby Company (Pty) Ltd and de Bruin have parted ways amicably. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“Swys has made a ground-breaking contribution in the style of play and attacking patterns to the Team whereby memorable tries have been scored at Emirates Airline Park,” said club chief executive Rudolf Straeuli. “On behalf of the management, players and supporters we thank him and wish him well in his future endeavours.” 

During de Bruin’s tenur,e the Lions won the Vodacom Cup in 2013, the Currie Cup in 2015 and reached the Vodacom Super Rugby finals is 2016, 2017 and 2018. 

“It was an unbelievable seven years with the Lions family. Thank you to everyone who made it special and memorable. I pray for the team to receive God’s blessings,” said de Bruin. 

“The Lions will always have a special place in my heart, and always remember as a Team we play to score tries and inspire people by the way we play.” 

(Continue reading below…)

Video Spacer

Lions Rugby Company (Pty) Ltd will proceed with an internal process and will consult with SA Rugby as well as other Stakeholders in the appointment of a successor. 

De Bruin was due to work with the Springboks at the World Cup in Japan but his his mental health situation, which impacted on his role with the Lions during the 2019 Super Rugby season, resulted in him stepping away from that responsibility. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Rassie Erasmus called in former Munster assistant Felix Jones to fill the vacancy on the Springboks coaching ticket. 

WATCH: World Rugby reacts to shock All Blacks cancellation claim.

Video Spacer

 

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
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?

4 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster | Autumn Nations Series All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
Search