Stormers need pack improvement after conspiring against themselves

The DHL Stormers ended their last gasp defeat against Glasgow Warriors feeling disappointed yet consoled by the thought they were just beaten by a better team on the day - but when they took a look at the game in their video analysis session it changed their minds.

Assistant coach Rito Hlungwani has admitted that the performance of the forwards when it came to their mauling in particular was well below par, with mistakes in execution costing them points during the several occasions they were in the Glasgow 22 and had the chance to go for a driving maul try.

With the emphasis now being switched back from the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, where the champions are still sitting pretty with a comfortable position in the top two, to the Heineken Champions Cup, the Stormers forwards coach says there’s been a lot of hard work put in on rectifying the mistakes made against Glasgow.

It will be necessary too, for the experienced former Argentina captain Agustin Creevy is back playing for London Irish after missing the first round Heineken Cup game against the Stormers because of suspension, and Irish also have two locks with Wallaby experience playing for them. Hlungwani feels the failure of the maul to get reward in Glasgow played a role in the defeat.

“The Glasgow game was a big disappointment for us from a forwards point of view as we felt we let ourselves down by not sticking to our structures and our system. We had more mauling opportunities than in any game and we didn’t make use of them,” said Hlungwani.

“Straight after the game we thought that Glasgow had done really well to stop us, but then once we analysed the game we saw how poorly we executed in that aspect of the game. It was all on us. It just wasn’t good enough when it comes to mauling, our timing was just all wrong and we went out of system. We usually do so well in the opposition 22, this time we didn’t.”

Of course, there were mitigating circumstances last week that the Stormers won’t be facing this time around. For a start, they are now fully recovered from their more than 40 hour journey to the UK via Doha, and have had time this week to work on things they couldn’t last week.

“It goes without saying that we have much more time to prepare this week than we had last week. Last week we had just one training day, and while I don’t want to be seen to be making excuses, it did impact us. For instance, we would have had more time to work on our exits, which let us down badly in the game, had it not been for the shortened training opportunities.

“This week we’ve had just one flight of just over an hour from Glasgow to London, and so therefore a lot more time to put into preparation. We’ve been working on what let us down against Glasgow and we are confident it has been put right now.”

There was another aspect that should be different this week, with the Stormers facing Irish at the Gtech Community Stadium, the home ground of the Brentford Football Club, who beat Liverpool there in a Premier League game not that long ago. It is a normal grass pitch, which means the Stormers won’t have to contend with the alien 4G artificial surface that they’ve played on in both their URC defeats this season (the other was in Cardiff).

“We played on a 4G field, which in itself poses another challenge. From outside, it might look easy, but is in fact very different. It may be why they looked so much faster than us. They train on that surface every single day,” said Hlungwani.

“There are so many variables, and normal grass is very different. 4G doesn’t stop us throwing the ball around and mauling but it does leave you a second behind because you are just not used to that surface. We don’t train on it consistently like our opponents do. I don’t think the way we approached the game was wrong, but what we can do is adapt better to 4G surfaces. Glasgow certainly looked far more comfortable on it.”

What Hlungwani was saying is borne out by the results the South African teams have managed at the Glasgow home ground of Scotstoun since the start of the URC midway through 2021 - a South African team is yet to win there, with the Bulls suffering even more than the Stormers did when they played there earlier this season, losing 35-21. Last season Glasgow beat the Sharks 35-24 and were 13-9 winners on a particularly inclement day against the Lions.

Stormers defence coach Norman Laker will be beside himself that his team conceded four tries, but Hlungwani reckons that the 4G pitch contributed to that too.

“It applies to our defence as well, it enables the opposition to be much faster with their passing game. Look, I am not using the pitch as an excuse, we didn’t do as well as we normally do, but the surface did play a role in terms of the opposition just being far more comfortable than we were.”