Troubled Lions' survey drama comes to head as popular Van den Berg leaves coaching post

The fall-out from the Lions' controversial MyPlayers survey came to a head on Wednesday after the troubled franchise confirmed Albert van den Berg would not be renewing his contract.

Highly regarded by the players, the former Springbok second rower - appointed as forwards coach in 2021 mere weeks before the Lions' inaugural URC campaign - was widely expected to follow this course of action because of a breakdown in trust with some of his coaching staff colleagues and the executive.

Van den Berg is embroiled in a legal fight with Chris Venter, the side's technical analyst, whom allegedly abused access to his laptop and took pictures of private messages on the Whatsapp platform because Venter suspected him of leaking the contents of the survey.

Venter, as part of his official duties, sets up the coaching staff's respective computers to enable them to conduct live analysis during matches.

As a result, the 49-year-old served Venter papers in his personal capacity.

News24 previously reported that the leak originated at the conclusion of a feedback session with the players organised - with good intentions - by head coach Ivan van Rooyen, who perhaps miss-stepped in not divulging the details with CEO Rudolf Straeuli first.

By the time the details became known in the public sphere - two months after the team meeting - Straeuli hadn't even read the survey results yet.

The Lions Rugby Company has previously confirmed its knowledge of Van den Berg's legal action against Venter and launched its own internal investigation.

It also said it wouldn't be commenting on organisational matters.

Van den Berg's departure coincided with the coaching staff's debriefing with the executive on Monday, where another mediocre URC campaign was dissected as