Brendan Nel compares the current plight of the winless Lions with the 2002 Bulls in his column for Supersport.
"I remember sitting in the office of Heyneke Meyer at the time, where Meyer at one point looked exasperated, and turned to myself and a colleague from Beeld, asking us “So what do you think we can do to turn this ship around?” It was a moment which most people don’t get to experience, but also one which will sit with me for a long time.
"At the time Meyer was probably the most promising coach in the country, but was pushed without the necessary resources into a competition which is so unforgiving that a simple mistake could ruin your season’s hopes.
"Meyer, to his credit, went back to the drawing board, cleaned out the dead wood at Loftus Versfeld and made a power play to exclude the meddling officials. Sounds a bit like what Dick Muir should do at Ellis Park, doesn’t it? But he also had the support at the time of a chief executive named Stephan Pretorius, who is now at the Southern Kings, and together with an equally ambitious and hard-working talent scout Ian Schwartz, they started building an empire which now rules the Southern Hemisphere."
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