It was disturbing to hear DHL Stormers coach John Dobson admit that the same problems that had conspired against his team in the first Vodacom URC coastal derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks had been evident again in the Durban return.
Ill-discipline again cost the Stormers, with 17 penalties conceded this time and 15 in Cape Town seven days earlier. Again, there were two yellow cards. Admittedly, referee Chris Allison made some quite bizarre calls against the Stormers, and Ruben van Heerden had every reason to question him on the validity of the yellow card that effectively swung the game against the Stormers, who’d been leading by 10 points at the time.
The Sharks scored two converted tries in the period Van Heerden was off the field, and that was what effectively swung the contest the home team’s way before the massive faux-pas from fullback Warrick Gelant that later killed the contest and left the Durbanites as 36-24 winners.
But while the refereeing could certainly be quibbled with, and the same could be said of the previous week in the home derby, where the abject standard of local refereeing was also very much spotlighted, the Stormers will be the first to admit the Sharks were the better team on the day. On both days.
What should not be the case this time around is any complaint about their game plan. They did not overplay in the Durban game; it wasn’t freneticism of forcing the play that let them down, although there was a five-to-six-minute period before Grant Williams scored the first Sharks try where the Stormers had several opportunities to exit but didn’t.
When you have the Bok starting scrumhalf, the Bok flyhalf and the Bok fullback in your team, that is inexcusable.
THE GAME WAS WORKING BEFORE THE YELLOW CARD
The Stormers were leading at halftime because their more balanced game was working, and it continued to work until Van Heerden was carded with the Stormers leading 24-14. From there, the Stormers conceded 22 unanswered points, which is completely out of kilter with the trend of a season where they have tended to be the team that finishes strongly.
The way the Stormers spat the dummy after Van Heerden’s card, and no doubt the gift Gelant gave the Sharks too, led to what apparently was an Alex Ferguson-like word shower from Dobson and his coaching staff to the group after the game. And rightly so. A big reaction has been demanded. Again, rightly so.
But while there was plenty of reason for angst and disappointment, what won’t help the Stormers is to allow the fact that they were derby defeats against arch rivals to blow their confidence. As skipper on the day, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu put it afterwards, if his team had been offered a two-defeat-in-10-games scenario at the start of the season, they would have taken it.
TIME TO REGROUP AND MAKE ADJUSTMENTS
The Stormers now head into a four-week break, a week longer than the Lions and the Sharks, and they will feel they need it as it offers them an opportunity to make the game adjustments that might be necessary. It shouldn’t require much, for after all, we are talking about a team that still has an 80 per cent record in the competition.
When they come back, they have two difficult away derbies to play against the Lions and the Vodacom Bulls (28 February and 14 March) before they head into a series of matches against overseas teams they should be expected to win, starting with the Dragons at DHL Stadium on Sunday, 22 March, followed by Edinburgh at the same venue six days later.
Big games in Cape Town in their future include the clash with the high-flying Glasgow Warriors, while there are two potentially difficult overseas games still on their schedule - they finish off the league phase of their season with games away to Ulster and Cardiff. But their record overseas this season will give them confidence that they can win north of the equator.
The Stormers will figure that if they can get one win in the two games at altitude, and then pick up the two wins at home that should be expected, they will head into April in a strong position in their quest for a top four finish - particularly given the improved form of the Sharks and the Bulls and the likelihood that they may knock back the challenges of Munster and Cardiff when they come to SA at the same time the Stormers host the Dragons and Edinburgh.
RETURNING CAVALRY WILL HELP
Apart from a relative easing of the difficulty factor, and the Stormers did create a strong buffer for their challenge with their early season form, they are also due to get several experienced players back from injury after the break - among them strong team leaders in the form of Ruhan Nel, Deon Fourie and Dan du Plessis, plus the pace on the wing of Seabelo Senatla.
All three of those leadership figures have captained the team in the past and Nel, in particular, will be a welcome returnee as it was he who led the Stormers to their big triumphs overseas. He is highly regarded as a leadership figure within the group, and apart from his captaincy credentials, his defensive organisation should shore up an area of previous strength that has started to become decidedly creaky of late.
WHY LOSS OF MOERAT WILL HURT
Of course, the attrition rate will be a determining factor - the Stormers have lost Salmaan Moerat for at least four months due to ‘turf toe’, which was apparently the fault of the poor condition the DHL Stadium field has been left in following a Moto-Cross event in December.
Moerat has his detractors, but apart from him being the club captain, the presence of four quality locks was key to Dobson being able to field the supersonic bench that engineered important gear shifts in overseas games against Benetton, Munster and Bayonne, and also the home derbies against the Bulls and Lions.
But the Stormers have now played their 10th game, and they have eight to play and just two defeats on their record. If they get on a winning run after the break, a top log finish is still on the cards for them and if they achieve it, no one, well at least outside of Durban, will remember the blip of the two Sharks games.
After all, the URC is a marathon, and not a sprint, and no one could reasonably expect the Stormers to go through an entire campaign without suffering a lapse somewhere. Yes, those defeats came in derbies, and maybe that’s why, to the team, it might feel like it hurts more, but if they’d beaten the Sharks twice and instead lost the away games to Benetton and Munster, they’d be in the same position on the log they are in now.
This season is far from over and provided they use their weeks off wisely and then regroup properly refreshed, both in mind and body, the Stormers are a long way from being a spent force.