Stormers coach emphatically doesn’t want help from Covid

The final week of Vodacom Super Rugby Unlocked has arrived and the ravages brought about by Covid-19 have the potential to have a say in the destination of the trophy, but DHL Stormers coach John Dobson insists he wouldn’t want any help from the pandemic.

If all the games scheduled to be played on the final weekend are played and completed the Vodacom Bulls should win the competition. They are due to host the Phakisa Pumas in their final game and with a two-point lead over their nearest challengers, the Stormers and the Cell C Sharks, they would back themselves to do what is necessary to get their hands on the trophy.

However, the Pumas game agains the Emirates Lions was called off at the weekend because of three positive Covid tests in the Pumas camp, and the bulk of the Pumas pack has been put into quarantine. Even on Friday, when SA Rugby released a press release on the postponement of the Emirates Airlines Park game, there was a hint that, at the very least, the scheduling of Friday night’s game might be impacted.

If you take precedent as a guideline, a cancelled game should mean it is declared a draw, and the teams share the points, meaning two log points each. Should that happen, the Bulls would be vulnerable to both the Stormers and the Sharks, who ironically play each other in their Unlocked game in Durban on Saturday.

Not that we should feel too certain that the Jonsson King’s Park game won’t be affected by Covid - the Sharks will be anxiously awaiting the test results on Monday of two players who were quarantined last week because they came in contact with the Sharks player who tested positive. Should they be cleared, the Sharks will breathe a sigh of relief, though they would still be anxious that the rest of the squad comes through any direct Covid tests and Covid protocols with an all-clear.

The Stormers should obviously be anxious too, for if the Sharks camp suddenly has a proper Covid problem of the sort that the Pumas have now and which the Lions experienced a few weeks back, then the Durban game won’t take place and points should be shared.

VIRUS WOULD BE AN UNWANTED ALLY

Regardless of what happens, Dobson doesn’t want Covid to have a say, and neither does he want the virus to take on the role of being his team’s ally going into this week by scuppering the best laid plans of the Bulls.

“We are not too worried about Covid ourselves because we have been very careful and, touch wood, there have been no problems up to now,” said Dobson after his team’s solid 30-13 win over the Toyota Cheetahs at Newlands in their penultimate Unlocked game.

“Obviously there is a chance Covid could have an impact in this final week but we really hope that won’t be the case. If we were to win the trophy we would want to do it fair and square. If the Bulls play the Pumas on Friday and beat them then they deserve to win the Unlocked competition. They have been playing great rugby.

“If Covid intervened and it meant we would win it because of a cancellation it would be a hollow victory and we would not want to win the competition like that. So I hope we have a final week of this competition unhampered by Covid,” he added.

The Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie said he felt it would be unfair on his team if, having been forced to share the points from the eventually cancelled game in Johannesburg nearly a month ago, the Lions/Pumas game that was called off at the weekend was just rescheduled.

“We were happy to have that game against the Lions rescheduled and we would still be happy to play it if it was possible, so it would be unfair if now a rescheduling was made possible for this latest game that was postponed,” said Fourie.

“I think a different set of rules should apply to the Bulls/Pumas game if that was jeopardised because the doubt has not just been introduced the day before the game. There is plenty of time to work on an alternative,” he said.

The best case scenario is for everything to proceed as scheduled this week, and even if the Bulls game can’t take place on Friday, an alternative date should be found so as to ensure that whoever does win the Unlocked competition, which is decided on a league basis, will feel they are the rightful winners.

DURBAN GAME STILL CRITICALLY IMPORTANT REGARDLESS

But if the Bulls do play the game and beat the Pumas, thus making it impossible for them to be caught, that does not mean this weekend’s big clash in Durban becomes irrelevant or just about the silver medal. The matches being played at the moment count towards the Carling Lager Currie Cup, a competition which most teams will have firmly in their sights.

Indeed, there are a couple of reasons why the overall domestic competition, to be concluded with a semifinal on 16 January followed by a final on 23 January, will be a better gauge of which South African team is best overall.

That is because the more you study the Unlocked fixture list the more an oddity hits you - the draw is far from equal. I made the assumption that the Bulls/Pumas game this weekend would be in Nelspruit just because the Bulls have already played three games at home (Griquas, Sharks, Stormers). Learning that they are also hosting the Pumas, meaning four of their six games in the competition are at home, does undermine the integrity of the competition, particularly as a team like the Stormers play four of their six games away.

It is why Dobson doesn’t appear particularly emotional about the Unlocked phase of the season and perhaps rightly regards the Unlocked trophy as an equivalent of the old Super Rugby conference trophy, and not the Super Rugby trophy itself. He’s said before that his team’s goal is to be in the Currie Cup final on 23 January and he repeated that after the win over the Cheetahs on Saturday night.

That being so, he should feel pleased about how his side is now gaining momentum after the ignominy of what happened at Loftus just two weeks ago. Against Tafel Lager Griquas they scored six tries to nil in Kimberley to start their rehabilitation and on Saturday night against the Cheetahs they continued on a steep upward graph.

The Cheetahs coach acknowledged the superiority of the Stormers in a particularly hard fought and bruising game - Dobson described it as the toughest his team have played this year - and the Cape side were deserving of the praise.

LAKER NEEDS TO SEND SPECMAN A DONUT

Stormers defence coach Norman Laker should send Cheetahs wing Rosko Specman a donut, because if it were not for the freaky try completed by the Blitzbok in the second half the Stormers defensive system would have boasted a clean slate for the second week in succession. And Laker had to buy the who team donuts after the Griquas game because that is the deal he has entered into with the team if they keep a clean slate.

They came close to doing it again, with their press defensive system ensuring that the Cheetahs were under constant pressure and forced into errors that contributed to the magnitude of the Stormers’ win. There are only so many donuts one coach should be able to afford during these times of Covid, so perhaps Laker should smile about that solitary try given away.

Defence is just one area where the Stormers have improved, there are several others, with the forwards having rediscovered their energy, and with it their authority. If there was a stand-out forward, apart from the irrepressible captain Steven Kitshoff, it was again lock JD Schickerling, with Juarno Augustus not far behind. Ruhan Nel has added zip to the backs since his return from injury and Warrick Gelant showed again why he has the best individual attack stats in the competition.

The try he scored towards the end of the game would not have come about though were it not for the skilful pass he received from Damian Willemse, and the flyhalf, who did almost everything an individual could do in a game apart from score a try - in the sense that he kicked penalties, conversions, a dropped goal and was yellow carded - has made a pleasing steady improvement in recent weeks.

BOSCH SAVED SHARKS FROM SINKING INTO THE BIG HOLE

Talking of flyhalves, for once the Sharks completed a game without Curwin Bosch being awarded the Man of the Match. This time it went to his opposite number, Tinus de Beer. But it was nonetheless Bosch who won a tight game for the Sharks, and saved them from sinking into a figurative version of Kimberley’s famous Big Hole, with his last gasp penalty against a Griquas team that played above themselves.

The Sharks have plenty of potential in their team but coach Sean Everitt might be starting to wonder if his contestable kick approach is still the right way to go. Opposing teams have cottoned onto it and it is not reaping the dividends it did in the initial stages of the Super Rugby season before Lockdown.

Not that Everitt has much choice this coming weekend - rugby matches in November in Durban will always have a good chance of being played in the rain, and if it doesn’t rain, it will be humid, meaning still a wet weather game.

Weekend Vodacom Super Rugby results

Tafel Lager Griquas 33 Cell C Sharks 34

DHL Stormers 30 Toyota Cheetahs 13

Emirates Lions/Phakisa Pumas postponed/cancelled due to Covid-19