Stormers return to 'day job' with injury concerns but feeling positive

With no EPCR commitments for the rest of the season, Vodacom Stormers coach DHL Stormers may consider he now faces the perfect scenario when it comes to the full focus he can give to what he refers to as “our day job” of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship challenge.

A clutch of first-choice players watched the 31-22 defeat to Racing 92 at the La Defense Arena in Paris, which knocked the Cape side out of the Investec Champions Cup, from the stands. They were being rested in preparation for Saturday’s URC showdown with log-leaders Leinster, a game that has become even more important due to the EPCR exit that puts all the Stormers’ eggs in one basket.

The Stormers may have dodged a bullet by failing to make the consolation prize, if it is that, of getting into the secondary European competition, the Challenge Cup. It means they don’t have the additional difficult overseas Challenge Cup trips that the Vodacom Bulls, Hollywoodbets Sharks and Emirates Lions have to contend with in addition to the URC.

All travel the Stormers will do henceforth is for URC games. That cuts the logistical challenge faced in the remaining months of the season quite considerably. While having one less trophy to compete for might sound like a loss, the reality is that with Champions Cup sides dropping into the Challenge Cup having to play all remaining games away, the gains from still being in the EPCR competition are debatable.

CAN TAKE CONVENTIONAL ROUTE TO CHAMPIONS CUP QUALIFICATION

The Sharks had to use the Challenge Cup last year to get into the Champions Cup due to their failure in the URC. Dobson will be hoping that he can qualify for next season’s Champions Cup by going the conventional route of finishing in the top eight of the URC. They are currently 10th, admittedly with a game in hand on most other teams, so it is tight, but having a sole focus should help.

At the same time, it also heaps extra pressure on the Stormers, and that intensification of pressure will start with this week’s visit to Dublin. Leinster are top of the log and riding high, but there is also a potential opportunity for the Stormers in the sense that Leinster also provide the bulk of the Ireland team that will kick off another Guinness Six Nations campaign the following week.

Having completed two successive Champions Cup games, one of them a difficult one against La Rochelle, it would be reasonable to assume Leinster may have to go in understrength. Two seasons ago the Stormers drew away against Leinster, and have in fact never lost to the Irish province, and even though this game will be played at Aviva Stadium and not the RDS Arena, Dobson and his charges will feel they have a chance.

SCANS ON ROOS AND HARTZENBERG

However, there were injury concerns following the Paris game to players who would be considered first choice for Dublin that need to be assessed at the start of the buildup week. Joseph Dweba and Suleiman Hartzenberg, who has been in outstanding form recently, both came off during the game, while Evan Roos was excellent until the end but finished with a nasty facial wound.

“We’re going to have to check on Joseph, it looks like just a stinger, while Suleiman potentially has a fractured hand, and Evan has done something serious to his cheekbone,” Dobson said in a post-match voice note from Paris.

“They’ll be checked on the X-ray, but we’re looking forward to next week. It’s nice to know that guys like (Leolin) Zas, Seabelo Senatla, Warrick Gelant, Manie Libbok, Deon Fourie and BJ Dixon will be fit next week. I just hope those scans from the other players give us a bit of good news.”

Although the defeat dumped the Stormers out of the elite European competition, Dobson would have seen anything that happened after the opening defeat to Toulon in Gqeberha as a bonus. He mixed up his selections against Sale Sharks at home and came away with a 40-0 victory, while he was even more understrength in Paris and yet his team pushed the eventual winners all the way.

“There were lots to be proud of, we showed good fight. They were obviously loaded with some world class players, with nine, 10 or 13 internationals out there. We were light a couple of players, but we showed enormous fight. At 24-22 I thought we had every chance to win it. The way we stayed in the fight was very refreshing and it was good to see the growth of some players we’re investing in or supporting, whether it’s Paul de Villiers, Jonny Roche or Jurie Matthee as a back-up flyhalf

“And guys like Andre-Hugo and Ruben van Heerden’s performances, those were good for us. I thought Paul de Villiers was excellent, JD Schickerling covered ground as usual and we obviously had two veterans in Frans Malherbe and Ali Vermaak coming on in the second half.”

LINEOUT REQUIRES WORK

Dobson said the plan had been for Malherbe and Vermaak to galvanise the scrum when they came on, and that it didn’t happen was mainly down to the referee allowing Racing to get away with some clever tricks after halftime aimed at de-powering the Stormers’ set scrum advantage.

Whereas the hosts were penalised three times in the first half, that was not repeated in the second, and it was part of the reason the Stormers did not get over the line as winners in a close and entertaining game.

The lineout was decidedly wonky and may effectively have lost the Stormers the game, so there is work to do on that aspect of their play before the Leinster game, but they do go into the Leinster clash as one of the top lineout teams in the URC from a statistical viewpoint. So they will see what happened against Racing as an aberration.

Overall, the game would have been a good experience for the fringe players who made an appearance and it was reason for Dobson to feel upbeat.

“It was a high-impact, fast, high level game of rugby. It was extremely fast and extremely physical and playing in it provided experience that will probably give us hope for the future,” he said.

After the Leinster game the Stormers head into a testing derby period in the URC that features clashes with the Bulls at home (8 February) and away as well as an away trip to Emirates Airlines Park to play the Lions.