The disappointing four point defeat to Ulster at the Kingspan brought to an end the DHL Stormers’ away program in the league phase of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and now come four home games that they will be expecting to propel them into the playoffs.
The smart money will be on them making it at least to eighth, for while they lie 10th currently they are only one point behind seventh placed Benetton. And Benetton are one of the teams they will play on their home run.
It is the identity of their opponents in the closing phase, with other challengers for top eight positions, Connacht and Cardiff, also set to come to DHL Stadium, that inspired the Stormers’ confidence that two wins in their last three away games, starting with the visit to Loftus at the beginning of March, would be enough to set up their challenge.
However, while the 38-34 defeat to Ulster wasn’t a significant setback in their top eight challenge, and the two bonus points they grabbed towards the end could prove invaluable in the final count-out, the home run is not going to be a gimme for them if they carry on the trend that re-emerged in Belfast - that of taking out that old 12-bore shotgun and riddling their own feet with bullets.
DOBSON AGREED TEAM CONSPIRED AGAINST THEMSELVES
It was such a late game on Friday that Stormers director of rugby John Dobson didn’t go in front of an online press conference. Instead he sent back a voice note through the Stormers’ media team.
Listening to it was a bit like reading the supersport.com match report, which initially had a headline “Stormers shoot themselves in both feet again” before it was changed because of the late fightback and the consolation of those two points.
The concept of conspiring against themselves, something that happens way too often and can therefore be considered a trend, was very much the theme of Dobson’s voice-note.
“Had we been offered seven points from the tour (five against Scarlets and two against Ulster) we might have bought that at the start. We were aiming for two wins, which is eight points (if you don’t get bonus points) so we were one short,” said Dobson.
“What was disappointing (with this defeat) was the aspect that we thought we were probably for large parts of the game our own worst enemy,” he added.
Those who watched the game can easily identify what Dobson is referring to. What can only be described as a brain-fart from the otherwise impressive Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was directly responsible for five points on the stroke of halftime.
Feinberg-Mgnomezulu’s elbow on Rob Balouncoune was unnecessary as there was cover back and there was no threat of Ulster scoring, but they did manage to score when the penalty that accompanied the yellow card saw the ball transferred back into Stormers territory for the last play of the first half.
Then in one of the first plays of the second half Damian Willemse put in an unnecessary illegal clean-out on the Stormers line that led to a penalty and an Ulster try. There were 12 points in the space of about four minutes scored against the Stormers either side of halftime.
All of them were avoidable, and it cost them the game.
REFS WON’T BE SAME OBSTACLE AT HOME, BUT…
At home they are unlikely to have to put up with one of the other realities of playing overseas in the URC, that being that absolutely no break ever appears to go the SA team’s way from a refereeing perspective.
Hopefully later this week a disciplinary hearing will agree with the view that the red card to Neethling Fouche was ridiculous and rescind it.
It will be too late to help the Stormers but anyway that is in the past now, what matters is what is to come, and the Cape side will be hoping that the voluble support from the DHL Stadium stands will cause the referees to spotlight visiting misdemeanours in the same way as it happens when they are overseas.
What the Stormers do need to sort out, and Dobson appears to agree, is their discipline.
“The start we had (17-0 after seven minutes) was what we wanted, we wanted to keep the crowd quiet, to take them out of the game. And it was deadly quiet for 17 minutes,” said Dobson.
“I don’t know if we got complacent, but we certainly got ill-disciplined and didn’t work as hard in defence as we should have done.
“We then gave away five entries to the 22, one of them off a drop ball when Damian scooted it off his foot, and the other four were soft penalties. Like the previous week there were too many double penalties.
“Then of course there was Sacha’s late tackle, or trip or whatever it was, and that was really expensive for us. The second half we got a red card. It was really ill-disciplined, unfortunately.”
The red card was arguably unavoidable but Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s action certainly was. The young star will go on to win many games for the Stormers, but this was one he lost for them.
Given their forward dominance later in the game, it was the 12 points given away mid-match that cost the Stormers the win that would have put them sixth going into their home run. Instead they are 10th and on the outside of the top eight looking in.
They will start as favourites against all opponents, but Benetton did push the Bulls all the way in a Loftus quarterfinal last year and Cardiff have won in this country before. Connacht are also good enough to win in Cape Town if they are presented with the kind of gifts the Stormers gave Ulster.