Props are often the most talkative and confident people and Neethling Fouche knows his way around “the twilight zone”, the name former Sharks, Springbok and Scotland hooker John Allan once gave to his column in a Durban newspaper to describe an area of the game where often only those squaring up to each other in the front row really know what is going on.
So when Fouche, who earned his first Springbok cap against Georgia last year, says he’s not sure how Saturday’s scrum battle when his DHL Stormers team clash with the Vodacom Bulls eight in the eagerly anticipated Vodacom URC derby, it can be seen as an indication of how evenly matched the two scrums are.
The Cape Town game between the two teams on 3 January was a case in point. There were moments when it looked like the Stormers were in ascendancy, then the Bulls, and then in the last quarter it really was the Stormers who were dominant and it was their forward and physical superiority that saw them home 13-8. To put it in a nutshell, the outlasted the Bulls.
But quite apart from the fact that they are potent but evenly matched scrums, and next year’s Stormers linchpin has already publicly spoken about his desire to make a derby statement for the Bulls before he switches sides and heads home to the Cape in the off-season, there was an anomaly related to the DHL Stadium surface that also needed to be taken into account two months ago.
A motor-cross event staged at the stadium in mid-December left the field a wreck, and while the Bulls do have a formidable scrum, the Stormers might have expected more profit from the scrums that were de-powered by the loose surface in some of the other games they played.
The Ellis Park surface for the derby against the Lions two weeks ago was also very poor, so the Stormers should be looking forward to a rare solid surface to play on in Pretoria.
Which is good, for the scrum battle between two potent units could well determine the outcome of the match and prove a focus point.
“It is going to be an immense battle and, firstly, credit must be given to the respective scrum coaches,” the tighthead prop said.
“We have Brok Harris and they have Werner Kruger. Maybe a one-on-one scrum battle between them before kick-off would attract quite a few spectators.
"You guys have heard all the clichés but it really is about eight versus eight, and which eight is going to be more connected, that is the question. Everyone is so well coached these days.
“The Bulls have a big pack, they have heavy flanks. We have guys returning from injury. There is no easy answer to give you about how the scum will go. As an eight you have to pull together and be connected, and not scrum away from the challenge.”
PLAYERS TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MID-SEASON BLIP
What the Stormers might also be hoping for is some better reading of the scrums from the referee and assistants, for there has been a feeling that they’ve been unjustly done by when it comes to the calls of the local referees when it comes to the scrums in the derby games.
However, Fouche isn’t the type to look for excuses, and is not shy to face up to the culpability of himself and his teammates in the recent blip in the Stormers season which saw them go from being unbeaten in the season across both competitions, the URC and Investec Champions Cup, heading into the second week of January to now having lost four of their last five games.
“We have to admit it to ourselves - we just haven’t been good enough,” he says.
“My grandmother used to call me after the Stormers lost and give me a spanking over the phone. She is no longer with us but I can only imagine what she would have had to say about three losses in a row.
"We as players are looking at each other, and the finger points to yourself first. We have to be much better against this Bulls team. They are a side finding their rhythm.”
Indeed, while the Stormers’ graph has hit a downward spiral over the past two months, the Bulls’ trajectory has been in the opposite direction. When they lost to the Stormers in Cape Town it was their seventh consecutive defeat, but they haven’t lost since then.
NOTHING WRONG WITH THE TEMPLATE
However, Fouche doesn’t have too much truck with any theory that there might be something wrong with the Stormers’ playing template.
“I can understand why a lot of people are looking at big stuff, but I believe it is a couple of small things that we have to put right,” said the 33-year-old product of the Grey College rugby factory in Bloemfontein.
“When the confidence comes back that will lead us to a better place. When you lose, you go home, and you want to just put your head under a wet towel and shut out the world. We care so much about the Stormers and making the fans proud.
“We deeply care about the team. Is it a lack of trying, lack of caring, lack of effort? It is no to all of those. I think sometimes we try too hard. As Dobbo (coach John Dobson) recently said, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’
“We know we have the template, it is about getting the small but special moments right,” he added.
NORTH/SOUTH DERBIES ARE LEVELLERS
On current form, the Bulls will start as overwhelming favourites on Saturday, particularly as a 2pm kickoff at this time of the year is an advantage to the highveld based team, but north/south derbies have a funny knack of not going according to plan.
It might be how the players in the respective teams view the game - games against the Sharks might be intense for both teams, but when they face each other the motivation goes up an extra level.
“It is not a tough one to get up for,” said Fouche. “Someone said to me this morning, ‘If you had to ask the question who wants to play for the Stormers against the Bulls this weekend, 20 000 guys would immediately put up their hands, and say ‘I would love the opportunity to play the Bulls at a packed Loftus.’
“We are aware that it is a massive privilege to play in a special game like this. And over the course of a career you get a limited amount of opportunities to play these huge north-south derbies in Pretoria, and against a very good Bulls team.”