The DHL Stormers and the Lions have had diametrically contrasting starts to the Vodacom URC season and it may not be a coincidence that they also had vastly different buildups to their respective campaigns.
During the transit from Wales to Italy for the next game against Zebre in Parma the Stormers defence coach Norman Laker would have had a bit of a dilemma to consider. He buys the whole squad donuts when they do rugby’s equivalent of soccer’s keeping a clean sheet.
He didn’t have to fork out much last season, but the Cape side, with two clean sheets in three starts, are making a habit of it and will soon be threatening what Laker might consider his disposable income.
The Stormers’ whitewashing of Scarlets in Llanelli at the start of the third round was not perfect. As the late 1995 Springbok coach Kitch Christie would have said, they left points on the table.
In truth, had they been more efficient, they could have been out of sight long before the Paul de Villiers try just before halftime put proper daylight between them and the Scarlets on the scoreboard.
In many ways the Stormers have been a bit like the Springboks in recent times - they’ve chugged along at a sedate pace at the start, showing signs of sluggishness, before getting the bit between their teeth and establishing proper momentum later. But like the Boks they’ve mostly been dominant, and their points for and against differential of 85 reflects that.
It is that differential that puts the Stormers top after three rounds, with the missed bonus point try in the Ospreys game, something they were pressing for at the end, their only missed point so far. Munster are together with them on 14 log points but have a vastly inferior points differential after they squeaked to a hard fought one point win over Edinburgh in a game played at the same time as the Stormers one was.
CHANCE TO PROPERLY BURY OVERSEAS HOODOO
The significant thing about their most recent win was that it was achieved in their overseas game, with the Cape side not boasting a great record north of the equator, and they now have a chance to do exceed the minimum requirement they set themselves for their three match tour. That requirement would have been two wins in three, but a win over Zebre will give them a chance to bid for an unbeaten trip when they finish against Benetton the following week.
Benetton, who were thrashed by the Stormers in Cape Town last year and will be on a mission in Treviso, flexed their muscles with a good win over the Lions at the weekend, with that result starting a pretty bleak Saturday for SA fortunes in the URC, with the Hollywoodbets Sharks following up with a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Leinster and ditto the Vodacom Bulls in Ulster.
CONTEXT TO SHARKS AND BULLS LOSSES
But there was context to both the Sharks and Bulls losses that there wasn’t for the Lions. Leinster, who brought back a lot of their British and Irish Lions for the game, were always going to be tough to beat in Dublin.
And while the Sharks did bring back some Boks, their coach John Plumtree clearly has his eyes on this weekend’s first home game against Ulster as he let several of his top players return home to Durban after the conclusion of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship in London.
That included Eben Etzebeth, Ox Nche, Siya Kolisi, Grant Williams and Andre Esterhuizen, plus of course Aphelele Fassi is injured, while experienced lock Jason Jenkins, a former Leinster player, was forced to pull out on the eve of the Dublin game.
You need all hands on deck to beat Leinster and the Sharks also have several other good URC quality players such as Jordan Hendrikse, Hanro Jacobs and others on the crocked list so the Dublin result was hardly a surprise.
In the Bulls’ case their new coach Johan Ackermann did bring out most of his big guns, with Ruan Nortje the only real noticeable absentee (Kurt-Lee Arendse is injured) from his contingent of current Boks. With a star studded team lining up there will be disappointment that the Bulls lost as badly as they did, but maybe it was bringing back so many players all at once that cost the Pretoria team.
Handre Pollard played his first game for the Bulls in several years and only had a few training sessions to get used to the Bulls systems. The Bulls were expected to get scrumming dominance and they had overall forward dominance in the first half but just couldn’t convert on a day where it should also be said the refereeing team didn’t always help them.
As Ulster hung in and prevented the Bulls from scoring so their confidence grew against a team that understandably didn’t gel quite as well as the home team did.
HARDER TO FIND AN EXCUSE FOR JOBURG TEAM
When it comes to the Lions it is harder to find an excuse given that the only possible advantage to be had for them treating the Currie Cup more seriously than the other URC franchise unions did was that they might be more battle hardened at the start.
It hasn’t turned out that way and frankly the Lions already look jaded and may be paying for playing tough playoff games when they should have been having their final rest up between the pre-season and the start of the season proper.
That cues what the Stormers did right and they got wrong - if you look at the Stormers team that has done so well in the first three games there is hardly a player that featured in the Currie Cup beyond the one game against Boland Kavaliers right at the end that doubled as the first URC warmup fixture.
The Stormers have carried some early season rust, as they would be expected to, but what has been writ large has been the benefit they have derived from having a proper full pre-season together both to improve their conditioning and to work on aspects of their game that needed working on.
Laker’s defensive system was one of those and if he is happy to be wasting money on foodstuffs that professional athletes should really be staying away from he should be smiling from ear to ear this morning. But he is not alone.
The Stormers’ scrumming dominance of the opening three games was largely expected as regardless of who they put in the field the Stormers boast a strong scrumming culture, but forwards coach Rito Hlungwani should be delighted with the way his pack has rediscovered and refined their impact in the driving maul.
Of course it is early days, and the URC is a marathon and not a sprint, but the Stormers’ drive for a top four finish has been near pitch perfect and their decision not to take the domestic competition seriously is paying off big time for them. The opposite looks true for the Lions.
WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Scarlets 0 DHL Stormers 34
Munster 20 Edinburgh 19
Ospreys 24 Zebre 0
Benetton 41 Lions 15
Glasgow Warriors 49 Dragons 0
Leinster 31 Hollywoodbets Sharks 5
Cardiff Rugby 14 Connacht 8
Ulster 28 Vodacom Bulls 7