'We are concerned': MyPlayers CEO responds to Lions drama over leaked survey
SPOTLIGHT: The Lions Rugby Company and MyPlayers have issued a joint statement on the now notorious survey that was conducted at the Johannesburg franchise.
The Lions were in the media for all the wrong reasons as there were numerous reports of a disconnect between the players and management.
Lions Rugby Company Chief Executive Officer Rudolf Straeuli and board Chairman Altmann Allers both took exception to a @rugby365com report that raised questions about administrative issues and player unhappiness at the franchise.
At the start of the week, a leaked MyPlayers survey made headlines as Lions players had apparently given ‘very low’ ratings of the coaching and administrative staff at the franchise.
According to reports, Players gave coach Ivan van Rooyen a measly four out of 10 as the team has struggled on the field all season.
On Saturday, the joint statement said the following: "The Rugby Players' Organisation and the Lions Rugby Company recently met to discuss the roll-out and subsequent feedback process of their provincial Sport Psychological Fitness (SPF) assessment initiative conducted by MyPlayers at the Johannesburg-based franchise.
"These follows a series of media reports in the last week where certain aspects of the survey were made public."
The joint statement included comments from Straeuli and MyPlayers CEO Eugene Henning.
Straeuli admitted that things could have been done better when it came to the whole feedback process.
"First of all, I would like to state that we trust in the work MyPlayers is doing for professional players in South Africa. They form an integral part of our ecosystem within our rugby landscape," said Straeuli.
"I have had the opportunity to go through the results of the group survey presented to me by MyPlayers and I am comfortable with the process. We both agreed that perhaps the feedback process could have been more consultative, but those are learnings which MyPlayers will take note of for similar exercises of this nature.
"It is unfortunate however that contents of the survey were maliciously leaked and has somewhat discredited a process which was in fact credible and professionally facilitated.
"We will now dive deeper into the feedback received and determined how best to address some of the issues raised by players."
Henning described the reports in the media this week as "inaccurate".
"We would like to thank the Lions for their openness during this process and most importantly their willingness to explore solutions not only for their players but the South African rugby environment as a whole," said Henning.
"We would further like to express that the information which landed in the media space this week was inaccurate and out of context. In fact, all individual assessment results remain confidential.
"While we are concerned about what has played out in the media over the last week pertaining to the Sport Psychological Fitness (SPF) assessment survey conducted at the Lions, we believe that the integrity of the assessment remains intact and serves as an important guideline to professional clubs pertaining to player welfare."
The Lions finally got back to winning ways on Saturday with a 35-24 bonus-point victory over Glasgow Warriors at Ellis Park.
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