The 30-13 Vodacom Super Rugby Unlocked win over the Toyota Cheetahs at the weekend was the first step through a tough sequence of four games that DHL Stormers coach John Dobson believes will define his team’s season.
The three try to one triumph over a team that Dobson described as “incredibly tough and desperate” opponents has put the Stormers on a more even keel after their boat was listing badly following the humiliation at Loftus a fortnight ago. A comfortable win over Griquas in Kimberley was followed by the Stormers’ most complete performance of the Unlocked season so far and has put the Stormers on what Dobson sees as an upward trajectory on their performance graph.
“We saw glimpses of it in Nelspruit (when the Stormers stormed back from a big deficit to win) and some of it in Kimberley, but I told the players during the build-up week that this was our confirmation game,” said Dobson.
“Are we the team that was so bad for most of the game at Loftus? Or are we the team that won so well in Kimberley? The Cheetahs were really tough, they put us under a lot of pressure, and flyhalf Damian Willemse showed he has made massive progress in recent weeks. Damian’s own graph is going steadily upwards and he is slowly starting to silence the haters.
“The players will tell you this was the most physical game of rugby we have played tis year. They put us under a lot of pressure and for Damian to perform like that under the pressure they were trying to put him under speaks volumes for his progress. It was really, really good.”
The Stormers will soon be welcoming back a clutch of influential players. For instance, skipper Siya Kolisi trained with the team before kick-off, and Jaco Coetzee is also due back from his injury problems. Injured wings Seabelo Senatla and Sergeal Petersen are also due back on the field shortly, which will give Dobson the opportunity to move Ruhan Nel, who has been one of the most impressive backs playing on the wing over the past few weeks, back into his best position in the midfield.
So it is starting to look up for the Stormers, and just in time for them too, because the coming weeks will go a long way towards determining whether they will attain their goal of securing a home semifinal on 16 January as a steppingstone to a 23 January final in the Carling Lager Currie Cup that would serve as a fitting swansong for Newlands as the Stormers/WP home ground.
“We’ve taken this as a four-week chunk that will probably define the season and we are dealing with this phase as something we have prepared for in a scientific way as if it were a series of test matches,” said the Stormers coach.
“We had the Cheetahs at home, now we have the Sharks away in our next game, and then the Bulls, who beat us two weeks ago, play us again here at the start of the Currie Cup. Then we go to Johannesburg to play the Lions. They are all incredibly tough games but if we can get through this phase successfully we will be in a great space to attain our ultimate goal, which is a home semifinal and then the final on 23 January.”
Dobson would like to win Super Rugby Unlocked, which is concluded this week, but again intimated it was always a secondary goal to winning the overall domestic season.
“Our dream is to play on 23 January, I just hope that doesn’t get decided by these Covid situations like those that forced the cancellation of the Lions/Cheetahs game,” he said.
“Our focus is on playing play-off rugby in January. A six-game competition is not a fair yardstick of where the teams stand, particularly not when we have to play four games away and just two at home.”
Dobson wasn’t sure which players would be ready for the coming week and the trip to Durban but he is hopeful that the likes of Kolisi, Coetzee and the wings will all be back in the next two weeks.
“We are managing our players, players like Neethling Fouche and David Meihuizen sat out of squad duty against the Cheetahs for the purpose of keeping the players fresh.”