The Lions best ever Super XV

Welcome back to my series of previews into the best ever Super Rugby XVs. Today we are going to have a look at the best ever Lions Super Rugby team.

First, here is the final Highlanders XV selected
Fullback – Ben Smith
Wings – Jeffrey Wilson and Brendan Laney
Centres – John Leslie and Seilala Mapusua
First five – Nick Evans (Tony Brown out)
Halfback – Byron Kelleher
Number 8 – Isitolo Maka
Flankers – Taine Randell (c) and Josh Kronfeld
Locks – Felipo Levi and Simon Maling (Tom Donnelly out)
Props – Carl Hoeft and Carl Hayman
Hooker – Anton Oliver

Today’s team is the Lions who are based in South Africa’s largest city of Johannesburg.

South Africa adopted a different approach from their Australian and New Zealand counterparts at the formation of the first year of professional rugby by opting to include the top four provincial unions from the famous Currie Cup domestic competition rather than adopt franchise models.

One of these four was the Transvaal province.

A lot was expected from this traditionally powerful province.

With a large contingent of World Cup winning Springboks and an amateur Super Rugby title from 1993 under the belt, Transvaal headed into the its first professional tournament as a pre-tournament favourite.

However it turned out to be a poor first season with only three wins and a 10th placed finish.

Transvaal was again promoted for the 1997 season and played out the Super 12 season as the Gauteng Lions and showed a bit more of its original promise, finishing fifth.

In 1998 South Africa decided to shy away from promoting Currie Cup teams and decided to form their own franchises from which the Gauteng Lions fell under the newly formed Cats.

The new franchise did not fare well in its first season, earning the wooden spoon and followed up with 11th place in 1999.

2000 however would see a change in fortunes for the franchise earning their first semi-final appearance going down to the Brumbies and then backing up the following year with another semi-final, this time losing to the Sharks.

After two years of finals appearances the future appeared to be bright for the franchise however this would prove to be a false dawn. From 2002-2005 the Cats finished no higher than 11th and twice picked up the wooden spoon.

From 2006, the start of the revamped competition known then as Super 14, a new South African franchise was introduced, the Central Cheetahs. The Cats would also be abandoned at this time and the Franchise was rebranded as the ‘Lions’.

The formation of the Cheetahs took its toll on the Lions in terms of playing depth with many players opting to represent the new franchise.

This certainly did show in the results. From 2006 to 2010 the Lions finished no higher than 12th and twice more finished in last place.

The further expansion from Super 14 to Super Rugby in 2011 would unfortunately not see better results with finishing 14th and another last place finish in 2012.

In August of 2012 the South African rugby union voted to relegate the underperforming franchise from the competition in favour of the Southern Kings, based in Port Elizabeth.

However the Kings would fare no better, finishing the season at the bottom of the table.

The Lions were afforded the opportunity to earn their spot back in Super Rugby with a playoff relegation home and away series against the bottom placed Kings and emerged victorious and claimed their spot back in Super Rugby for the 2014 edition.

Heading into this season the Lions were again widely tipped to anchor the bottom of the table but have surprised most, if not all, by claiming two first up wins against the Cheetahs and the Stormers before falling at Loftus to the Bulls.

Two from three is certainly a great start and while I cannot see them featuring come finals time I would suggest they are not going to be the easy beats as some have widely tipped.

I certainly hope that this season can be the catalyst for more successful Super Rugby competitions to come for this beleaguered franchise.

To recap on the rules:
• Players that have played for two or more teams will be eligible for the team they have earned the most caps for
• I will change my selections based on receiving three or more votes received for an alternative – any potential stalemates will be decided by the player with the most international caps

Just quickly, can I ask that you post your own preferences where they differ from my own, just makes it a bit easier to monitor.

Here are my selections for the all-time Lions Super Rugby.

Lions Super All Time XV
Fullback – Lois Koen
Wings – Chester Williams and Thinus Delport
Centres – Japie Mulder and Jaque Fourie
First five – Jannie de Beer
Halfback – Johan Roux
Number 8 – Andre Voss
Flankers – Francois Pienaar and Rassie Erasmus
Locks –Hannes Strydom and Kobus Wiese
Props – Os du Randt and Balie Swart
Hooker – James Dalton

What do you think Roarers? Agree or Disagree? If you don’t, please post your preferred selections below.

The next team we will be looking at are the Bulls from South Africa.