Four official man of the match awards and counting tells us about the place Paul de Villiers finds himself in currently and it is not too much of a leap to ask another question - what might the DHL Stormers have got out of their game against Harlequins had he been present?
Some might consider it an over-the-top suggestion that the 23-year-old who was born in George and a product of Oakdale Landbou near Riversdale in the Western Cape’s Overberg region could have made much difference to the under-strength team’s defeat in the third-round Investec Champions Cup fixture at the Twickenham Stoop in London. After all, the Stormers lost 61-10.
But there was a subtext to the Stormers’ quest in a game that led to their first defeat of the season across both the Champions Cup and the Vodacom URC. Stormers director of rugby John Dobson had said prior to departure that what his men really needed was a solitary log point of any description.
And he was to be proven correct. Harlequins would not have leapfrogged the Stormers into second position in their pool, and hence clinched a home round-of-16 clash ahead of the Cape team, had they either been denied a bonus point or the Stormers had picked up one when the two teams clashed.
It was at the breakdown that the Stormers were bossed by Harlequins, and it was there that the hosts were able to set up the big win that extricated them from what was a growing crisis.
They may not get anywhere in the Gallagher Premiership this season, but there’s hope for them in Europe, and it was off the platform they created against a Stormers team that played without a traditional openside that the Quins loose trio, spearheaded by Alex Dombrandt, launched the form that also saw them emerge as as influential players in the final round pool win over La Rochelle.
AT HEART OF IMPROVEMENT AGAINST LEICESTER
It was an area of Stormers deficiency that was mostly put right against Leicester Tigers, and as De Villiers’ fourth man of the match award for the season might suggest, the 2023 Junior Springbok captain was very much at the heart of that.
“The breakdown is a very important area for us, not only in how we defend but also a big part of how we attack,” said De Villiers as the Stormers started the buildup to Saturday’s URC derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks at DHL Stadium.
“It is something we look at after every game. It wasn’t just because we were late (to the breakdown against Harlequins) we also found that what was disruptive to our plans was how we carried the ball (into the beakdowns). You would have seen against Leicester that we got that fixed but it is a continual work on and we will keep focusing on that.”
LEADERSHIP ABILITIES BECOMING MORE APPARENT
He’s young in years but it is already apparent that De Villiers’ leadership abilities are starting to come through. He was borderline shy when first introduced to the Cape media through an online press conference last season, but each time he goes in front of the Fourth Estate now it appears he is more assured.
So much so that it is hard to relate him to the person who was interviewed for a Stellenbosch publication a few years back following the Junior Boks’ third place finish at the 2023 Junior World Cup.
“Experiencing such high influence from the media at only 20-years-old was not something I was used to. Comments from the public were inevitable.
"People say good things in the good times, but they can be harsh in bad times and I had to learn how to overcome this,” De Villiers told Die Matie, Stellenbosch University’s official student publication.
There certainly aren’t many brickbats flying in De Villiers’ direction given his form and his growing emergence as possibly the Stormers’ MVP, which is quite something to suggest given that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, another 23-year-old with experience of leading a national age-group team and already a Springbok, also plays for them.
GROWTH HAS BEEN QUICKER THAN ANTICIPATED
It means the time that the Stormers lamented the absence of their ace-fetcher in veteran Bok Deon Fourie, nicknamed Brannas, is now behind them, with De Villiers exceeding the rate of growth that was expected of him when he made his Currie Cup debut for Western Province against the Sharks not long after the 2023 Junior World Cup.
“He’s going to be very good but he has some learning still to do so I don’t think he’s quite there yet,” was what one of the Stormers assistant coaches said when asked about De Villiers at the pre-season jersey presentation function at DHL Stadium before the kick-off to the 2024/2025 season.
By the end of the season the same coach admitted that De Villiers had arrived and was one of the team’s star players.
That assistant coach was not Norman Laker, the defence coach who admitted that he and De Villiers “stamped heads” earlier in the season, which is probably an indicator that although young De Villiers is a strong-minded individual. It is also what you’d expect of the type of player that Laker describes.
“People think that someone like Paul just goes onto the field thinking “I’m going to steal this ball”, but there is far more to him than that and there is far more to him than what we see him do on the field,” said Laker.
“The homework he does off the field is phenomenal. He puts in a phenomenal amount of video work, studying both our own play and upcoming opposition, he asks questions, it is like he is studying at university.
"He studies every part of the game in detail: the set-piece, the breakdowns, where opportunities may come for him and the team.”
LEARNING A LOT FROM ‘BRANNAS’
What Laker says about De Villiers supports what De Villiers says about the influence that Bok veteran Fourie has had on him. The effective leader of the Boks in the closing stages of the last Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand, when all the other regular leaders were off the field, has been out injured but that does not mean he’s not rubbing something off on De Villiers.
“Deon is a massive voice within the group, not just to me but to the team as a whole,” said De Villiers.
“He may not be playing at the moment, but he is still here every day and plays a big off-field role. Of course he helps me a lot, he helps me with planning and standards, and I look at him a lot for how he operates. That counts for both on and off the field, perhaps even more on it than off it.”
Fourie is set to return from injury shortly and when he does the Stormers will be able to divide the work-load among traditional ball scavenging more than is the case now.
Meaning that De Villiers might get leaned on less, and there will also be another reinforcement shortly in the form of Keke Morabe, the No 8 who has been out for a year but was being re-treaded into a traditional fetching No 6 at the time he was injured in last year’s opening Champions Cup game against Toulon in Gqeberha.
DOESN’T WANT TO BE PIGEON-HOLED JUST AS A ‘FETCHER’
Not that De Villiers wants to be seen as only a ball scavenging flanker, known colloquially as a ‘fetcher’ at the time Jake White was Bok coach and defended the exclusion of Luke Watson from his plans by stating that the only ‘fetchers’ he knew were his sons, who fetched beers for him from the fridge.
De Villiers has more to offer than that and just to prove it last weekend he a creator in many of the most telling Stormers attacks and was on hand to assist in two of the tries.
“I’d like people to see me as an all-round player. The breakdown, defence and physicality are a big part of my game and the role of a No 6, but I also like having the ball in hand. I want to contribute on different levels – whether that’s on defence, kick chase, or attacking and linking with the backs.”
That last one is interesting - a few weeks ago I wrote after watching De Villiers set off on one of his hulking ball in hand forward dashes that he reminded me of the former Natal and Bok flanker Wahl Bartmann, but there have been some more silky moments recently where he has been more reminiscent of another former Natal (and WP and Bok) loose-forward Andrew Aitken, who was one of the best linking loosies of his generation.
YET HE’S CRUCIAL TO THE DEFENSIVE SET-UP TOO
Like someone like former Cheetahs Bok Heinrich Brussow, however, it is his breakdown play that makes him so valuable to the Stormers and while Laker is looking forward to the return of experienced outside centre Ruhan Nel from a defensive organisation point of view, he might also agree with the contention that started this story - that the Stormers might have been much better off if they’d just had De Villiers fronting for them against Harlequins.
The Stormers conceded nine tries that day, almost as many as in the first eight games of their URC campaign, and it wasn’t just down to problems with communication in the midfield.
Harlequins also had way too much quick ball to play with and it was why they were able to get through and round the Stormers players so alarmingly (and embarrassingly) easily. They may have “stamped heads” before, but not now.
“As the season has gone on, we’ve got to know each other a lot better and he understands the system now,” said Laker.
“He’s a clever guy, and it makes our defensive sets easier when you’ve got someone who can either steal the ball or slow the breakdown. One thing Paulie is doing really well at the moment is making good decisions. His turnover-to-penalty ratio is much better than it was in the past. I’m really happy for him, because when he’s doing well, the team is doing well.”
SET FOR CRUCIAL ROLE AS COASTAL DERBY NEARS SELL-OUT
It is indeed, and De Villiers will be an important player when the Sharks are hosted at what is expected to be a packed to capacity DHL Stadium on Saturday (at the start of the week there were already 30 000 tickets sold).
“I haven’t played in many sold out games, the one against the Bulls (a few weeks ago) was one of the first, so I am really looking forward to repeating that experience,” he says.
“Running out in front of that kind of support really means a lot, and it definitely helps you in the tough moments. It feels like you have an extra man on the field.”
He’s a different kind of openside flank and he could well end up playing at No 8, but Bok captain Siya Kolisi, who is set to become a teammate of De Villiers when he returns home to play for the Stormers next season, is just one of several star quality experienced players who will be fronting the Stormers in the game.
“It’s any player’s dream to test yourself against the best,” he said.
“They’re a team full of quality players. They are on the up and we respect them. But we’ll focus more on ourselves and our own game than on the names they’re bringing. It will be important for us to maintain our standards that every weekend we strive for. Some weekends we get it right, others not so.
“We will take the confidence (of knowing we are unbeaten at home to the Sharks in the URC), but we also know prior results doesn't really count in a derby. It is always 50/50. Whoever they bring, won’t impact our preparation.”
PART OF FUNCTIONAL BACK ROW
De Villiers will be helped though by the continuity there has generally been in the selection of the Stormers back row. He didn’t start against the Bulls, Ruhan Ackermann did. And Ben-Jason Dixon has played the odd game off the bench too, as did Evan Roos in the opening Champions Cup game against Bayonne.
But generally the De Villiers, Dixon and Roos partnership has been together and the more it is the more it appears to flourish.
“That connectedness you get when you play together with some guys a lot does help and it makes me feel like it makes me get better, “ he acknowledged.
“It helps when you have a good understanding of what the guys around you are likely to do (in a given situation). I think it essentially makes us better as a team.”