{"id":11792,"date":"2012-06-23T23:45:54","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T21:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-lions-coach-mitchell-suspended-after-player-complaints\/"},"modified":"2012-06-23T23:45:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T21:45:54","slug":"rugby-lions-coach-mitchell-suspended-after-player-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-lions-coach-mitchell-suspended-after-player-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Lions coach Mitchell suspended after player complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Ken Borland<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG, June 23<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Lions coach John Mitchell<br \/>\nhas been suspended with immediate effect following complaints<br \/>\nfrom the players, Super Rugby franchise president Kevin de Klerk<br \/>\nsaid on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The former New Zealand coach will face a disciplinary<br \/>\ninquiry by the board of the Johannesburg-based franchise.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c&#8221;John Mitchell has been suspended pending an investigation<br \/>\nafter complaints from the players,&#8221; De Klerk confirmed to<br \/>\nReuters.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c&#8221;The complaints of the players are quite serious and it&#8217;s<br \/>\nnot just from one or two players, it&#8217;s a very substantial number<br \/>\nwhich we cannot take lightly. As the custodians of Gauteng<br \/>\nrugby, we are responsible to our staff and the well-being of our<br \/>\nplayers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>De Klerk, a former Springbok lock, said he could not<br \/>\nelaborate on the complaints.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Assistant coaches Carlos Spencer and Johan Ackermann will<br \/>\ntake over the coaching as the Lions return to Super Rugby action<br \/>\nnext weekend.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mitchell, 48, joined the Lions in mid-2010 and steered them<br \/>\nto the Currie Cup title last year, but their Super Rugby form<br \/>\nhas been poor. The Lions have been South Africa&#8217;s<br \/>\nworst-performing franchise over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p> (Editing By Alison Wildey)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Borland JOHANNESBURG, June 23 (Reuters) &#8211; Lions coach John Mitchell has been suspended with immediate effect following complaints from the players, Super Rugby franchise president Kevin de Klerk said on Saturday. The former New Zealand coach will face a disciplinary inquiry by the board of the Johannesburg-based franchise. \u201c&#8221;John Mitchell has been suspended [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}