Cape Town — Former Springbok star Jacque Fourie is the only coach in the Lions set-up who's signed a contract extension with other announcements expected imminently, including that of head coach Ivan van Rooyen.
IOL Sport this week revealed that Van Rooyen will receive an extension of two years despite the Lions struggling under him in the first two seasons of the United Rugby Championship (URC).
Although Rudolf Straeuli, CEO of the Lions Company, said that they still have to announce the rest of the coaches, they have full confidence in Van Rooyen as head coach.
This is despite the fact that the 40-year-old only has a success rate of 39% since becoming head coach at the franchise.
“We grew him as a young coach and he's been doing well for us in growing the players that we wanted,” Straeuli said.
"Like I said, every coach on his own merit has to follow KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and we are in a process of that. So he (Van Rooyen) still has a year on his contract. I do not want to speak on individual guys.
"But we are confident we will in the following games reach what we want to do. And we hope to give him that space. It's a bit unfair in the way that this was created this week."
Van Rooyen and a host of other coaches, players and staff of the Lions Rugby Company are currently in negotiations to extend their contracts.
Straeuli confirmed only Fourie has signed for another two years.
“The only coach I can confirm who has extended is Jacque Fourie, the head defence coach. We are busy with coaches, players and staff and we will announce as it goes.
“Firstly, there is a budget, we have to work within our means. And this is a confidential system, so I am not going to get involved in rumour-mongering."
Straeuli confirmed that most of the Lions players, along with a host of juniors, have signed with the union and that they are still in contract talks with about five players.
"We are comfortable that we are going in the right direction. There are different competitions with obviously the Currie Cup starting now. We've had some warm-up games with the team.
"We are comfortable where we are at but we are not comfortable with how the recent tour went."
The Lions, currently 12th on the URC log, enjoyed a much-needed break after a long European tour and will step up their preparation for a South African derby with the Sharks in the URC this coming week.
IOL Sport