Lions coach John Mitchell has again blamed the Lions extensive injury list in the early season for the Lions poor form saying that the injuries had them starting the Super Rugby season on the wrong foot.
"You've got to go to the core issues, you can look at any permutation that you want," said Mitchell in Johannesburg.
"But to lose nine of your starting XV that won us the Currie Cup, and not have our current Test players, within the first week of the competition was always going to set us back," he said.
The struggling Johannesburg team won their only match of the Super Rugby season in the first week of the competition back in February against the Cheetahs.
They have since lost every single match since, battling to find continuity in both selection and performances.
Mitchell said injuries to experienced campaigners meant he had to find replacements elsewhere within their structures, which were not adequate for Super Rugby.
"You've got to be a realist at the end of the day."
"This competition is not about development ultimately but we've actually had to go into this competition and develop early and we suffered as a result," he said.
The Lions lost all four of their matches on their tour of Australasia, but Mitchell still managed to find positive aspects from the otherwise helpless situation.
"The team did grow and a lot of the guys that are experiencing Super Rugby for the first time have actually grown as individuals.
"The team work is slowly coming together, the set pieces and the lineouts have become better.
"But with the amount of changes that have occurred - I think we are pretty close to 19 changes in our team mix in this competition - team coherency has been hard to achieve."
He said the inconsistency in team selection has had a knock-on effect on other dynamics within the team.
"Hence there was an element of indecisiveness at times and younger guys have struggled with the physical load of this competition," he said.
"So I think they would have learnt a lot which would ultimately help us going into our next campaign."
Mitchell has also called for the South African Rugby Union to be clear on where the Lions playing future lies as the Lions appear to be the most likely to be replaced when the Southern Kings are added to Super Rugby in 2013.
Mitchell said that Lions president, Kevin de Klerk, and acting CEO, Reuben Moggee had given him some idea on the way forward but he wants more clarity form SARU.
"All one requires is the truth in order for people to plan. When you're told the truth, people can be decisive," Mitchell told TimesLive.
"Through Kevin and Reuben we have been given a clearer understanding of the situation based on what they know."
"Clearly we would like to know more so we can get on with our future."
