Fouche’s extension will help sustain Stormers strong scrum culture

The announcement that Neethling Fouche has signed on for another three years at the DHL Stormers can be seen as confirmation that the strong scrumming culture at the Cape franchise will be sustained for the foreseeable future.

There have been some front-row injury crisis’ that have grabbed the headlines in the past few seasons, but one thing about the Stormers always just seems to remain a constant - regardless of who packs down in the front row, they tend to dominate most opponents at scrum time.

Even the highly rated units, like the Springbok laden Sharks scrum, tend to come off second best against the Stormers scrum, and it is because of the strong scrumming ethos that has been a hallmark of the franchise dating back to the mid-1990s when Garry Pagel, Toks van der Linde, the late Tommie Loubscher and Keith Andrews were all playing for Western Province at the same time.

It has continued like that for most of the intervening 30 years, although there was arguably a rejuvenation when Rassie Erasmus arrived to take the coaching reins in 2008. Both Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malhberbe making their senior provincial debuts a few seasons later out of the WP Academy while very young for props but were helped by the presence at the union/franchise in those days of players such as Erasmus recruit CJ van der Linde, a Springbok World Cup winner under Jake White’s coaching in 2007.

FRONT ROW DEPTH IS CRUCIAL

Having depth in both prop positions, in other words both sides of the scrum, has been a hallmark of the Stormers/WP strength at scrum time. So it has been important to retain players that might not always be first choice. Given that he is at the same franchise as Frans Malherbe, arguably the best tighthead in the world and also at the Stormers on a long term contract, it would have been easy for Fouche to pick up an offer from another club or franchise where he would be a permanent first choice.

An indication of the perennial depth in one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable position on the rugby field, at the Stormers is that there was a period a few years ago when Fouche was first establishing himself, that he had Malherbe and Wilco Louw, who then went to Harlequins before linking up with the Bulls, playing ahead of him.

The Stormers were in a position where their tightheads were interchangeable, and they have had strong depth at loosehead too, with the likes of Kitshoff, JC Janse van Rensburg and the underrated but feared by his opponents Ali Vermaak on the books over the course of the past decade.

The scrumming culture was started when future Springbok World Cup winning forwards coach Matt Proudfoot was looking after the scrums in training and first Erasmus and then Gert Smal (he brought Wilco Louw to the Cape and also had Vincent Koch on the WP books during his tenure) was doing the contracting in positions that were effectively the equivalent of director of rugby (Rassie was senior professional coach and Smal was officially DOR).

BAD LUCK AT LOOSEHEAD BUT DEPTH THERE TOO

The loosehead side was where there were injuries this year that sparked talks of a crisis and saw veteran Brok Harris have to extend his playing career rather than move into his new life as a coach. Lizo Gqoboko has hardly played for the franchise since moving down from the Bulls because of injury, while Sti Sithole, though excellent when he has played, has had an injury punctuated sojourn back in the Cape after returning from the Emirates Lions (he started his senior career with WP).

Kitshoff of course returned from overseas as the big signing in 2024 but sustained a serious neck injury playing for WP in the Currie Cup. While he is determined to play again, the odds of him doing that aren’t great, but there is continued talk that the Sharks’ excellent and highly promising Ntuthuko Mchunu, who is behind Ox Nche in Durban but has a huge future, may be headed for the Cape next season.

Joseph Dweba has been in good form and while there are many critics who like to highlight his perceived weaknesses as a lineout thrower, he is probably only second behind the Sharks’ double World Cup winner Bongi Mbonambi, also a former the WP front row player from the Smal era by the way, as a scrumming hooker in this country.

And then there’s Andre-Hugo Venter, who in his most recent game against Racing 92 looked every bit the part of the future great some predict he will become, plus the promising JJ Kotze and evergreen veteran Scarra Ntubeni.

IMPRESSIVE YOUNGSTERS COMING THROUGH

In a nutshell, it amounts to a strong scrumming culture that will be sustained by Fouche’s contract extension as well as the continued commitment of the likes of Sazi Sandi, plus a plethora of young props coming through like Corne Wellbach and Junior Bok captain Zachary Porthen.

On the loosehead side there is Vernon Matongo, another youngster who made a good impression when he made his Stormers debut against Harlequins last month.

Of course, it is highly unusual for a prop to make his breakthrough at 21, like Malherbe did, so it is important for the Stormers to have an experienced player like Fouche there for another three years guiding the rising stars.

The 32 year old product of Hoerskool Rustenburg and the rugby factory at Grey College appears, like many props do, to be getting better the older he gets, and it is understandable that Stormers director of rugby John Dobson did not hold back at his delight that the occasional captain will remain a Stormer for another three years.

“Neethling is an incredible team man and as a tighthead prop is coming into his prime, so we are looking forward to even bigger things from him,” said Dobson in making the contract extension announcement.

“He competes with one of the greatest ever tightheads in Frans Malherbe and keeps pushing his standards, so it is understandable that many other teams would love to have a player of Neethling’s stature in their squad. He is another player that has completely brought into the project here and plays a key role in helping develop the next generation of front-row stars, so we are thrilled to have him on our books for another three years.”

CAN’T IMAGINE PLAYING FOR ANYONE ELSE

Fouche said he couldn’t imagine playing for any other team or living anywhere other than the Western Cape.

“Every time I put on the Stormers jersey I get quite emotional,” he said. “This team means the world to me and I honestly don’t want to play my rugby anywhere else. Driving into work and staring at Table Mountain, I don’t know where else you can get that. I have rubbed shoulders with some legends of the game and will keep pushing myself to improve.”
Fouche added that the Stormers team had the potential to achieve great things and were still “only at the beginning” of their journey.