Here is the truth about fairytales in sport.
There are some such as Leicester City Football Club winning the English Premier League, the Boston Red Sox winning a first baseball World Series after almost 90 years of trying and the Springboks winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
These sporting fairytales one might suspect are exactly that, fate showing you a great hand and everything falling into place.
However contrary to popular belief I don’t believe in sporting fairytales.
Sporting fairytales are earned through sheer dogged determination, the team playing to its utmost potential, perhaps an opposition’s perceived lack of respect, a dash of brilliance from your most influential players and downright good luck.
All these factors combined are the key ingredients in ensuring a team is inducted into the pantheon of sporting fairytales.
The Lions are such a team. They are on the cusp of arguably one of the greatest sporting fairytales in history and are only 80 minutes away from Super Rugby glory.
I cast my mind back to three years ago to the weekend where the Lions were relegated from Super Rugby at the inclusion of the Southern Kings. The Lions were in financial ruin and the team had imploded under John Mitchell.
The players revolted due to their perceived treatment.
Mitchell’s influence on the team can still be seen. One cannot deny that Mitchell’s placement of coaching structures, fitness requirements and work improving basic skill sets has left an indelible mark on the way the Lions play the game.
Johan Ackermann then took over the reins and has galvanised the Lions by using the most difficult of attributes to concoct – teamwork. This involves individuals putting the team before their own aspirations.
This quality supersedes any team littered with superstar players. The Lions are greater than the sum of their parts, and just Like Leicester City Football Club have created world-class players due to their environment created on and off the training pitch.
Players such as Warren Whitely, Faf De Klerk, Ruan Combrink, Elton Jantjies and the virtuoso demolition man Jaco Kriel, all in the public eye were mostly deemed not Springbok material (the exception being Elton Jantjies) in their formative years.
However, through the environment created by Ackermann and his right hand man Swys De Bruin, these players are all Springboks now. One could argue if it wasn’t for this core group, the Springboks would have lost the series against the Irish in June.
True brilliance in coaching relies on getting the very best out of the players, especially if the crop isn’t full of game-breaking players you could rely on to win you a game.
Ackermann in three years has taken a team of no-names and transformed them into a shining example of what can be achieved by players trusting in one another and their management team.
This Lions team has created an aura within their camp, which comes across as a ‘brotherhood’. With all their ability with ball in hand, superb defence and accurate kicking, they can go to the next level.
The Lions face a gargantuan challenge this Saturday. The Hurricanes have been playing sensational, smart knockout rugby.
They’re hosting the final and their rush defence has not let a try in over the last three fixtures.
Beauden Barrett – the mercurial Hurricanes fly-half – is in the form of his life. He seems to have the ball on a string, and only once has a team won Super Rugby outside of their home country – the Crusaders in 2000.
I certainly don’t deny having to travel across the world for a game is not ideal, however for a one-off game I don’t think the travel factor will have that much bearing – especially considering the adrenalin the players will be feeling, history being just 80 minutes away.
I am backing the Lions to pull off one sport’s greatest upsets and create history by becoming only the second team from South Africa to hold aloft arguably the most difficult trophy to win in rugby.
I hope the Lions use all their collective belief in one another to bring silverware back to Johannesburg. By doing so would have earned their fairytale the hard way. As we all know, victory tastes so much sweeter after nothing is left in the tank.
Those dark moments are conquered by your brothers standing together.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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