If there was any chance of the DHL Stormers underestimating their next opponents in the Vodacom URC, Ulster, that chance should have evaporated during the 160 minutes played on South African soil at the weekend.
Not that the Stormers needed any reminding after some of the memorable battles between the two sides, and who will ever forget the sensational semifinal played between the sides in 2022. But it did feel that the Cape team and the Vodacom Bulls had all the momentum heading into the final games of this phase, and there was a bit of a wakeup call in the most recently completed round.
The Stormers had to scramble to resist a strong Scarlets fightback at the DHL Stadium, while Ulster were competitive for much of the way against the Bulls at Loftus, a game the bookies were expecting the Bulls to win by a big score.
The Stormers were disjointed for much of the game because of a freaky set of injuries that forced them to enter their bench relatively early, and the uncontested scrums called when both hookers were ruled out, plus of course Deon Fourie, who was off when he could have helped out at hooker, made their life a lot harder than it needed to be.
But the really consistent problem through the game was the Stormers’ defence, with holes being found in the system although the real breakdown was their inability to shut down the Scarlets out wide. That’s not the first time it has happened, and there might be something in this - it usually happens when Ruhan Nel, their regular captain and leader of the defence at outside centre, is absent.
Nel was absent against Scarlets with the injury that ruled him out of the previous Investec Champions Cup game against the Bristol Bears, when he was also missed, and Dobson agreed after the 52-40 win that must have had defence coach Norman Laker in a panic at times, that it is crucial Nel recovers in time for the Ulster game.
“He’s a defensive champion. Local and South African attacks, we can handle comfortably (without Nel), and maybe some of the northern hemisphere conditions too. But then you’ve got Connacht and Cardiff, who have sophisticated stack attacks. What teams are doing to us, like Bristol did to us last week, is take us to the blindside.
“If we aren’t perfectly numbered, they bring us into the open and take away our line speed. That is where we need to evolve, and that is where Ruhan is good. Stormers versus Sharks the defensive pressure is different to when we play Connacht, or Leinster. That is just how it is, and we are going to have to get better at that quickly.”
Dobson said Monday would reveal whether there was a chance of Nel playing against Ulster this coming Saturday afternoon.
“We will see how he goes on Monday. I am not worried about the captaincy. The point about defence is not that Wandi (Simelane) is bad, it’s just that Ruhan is such a leader in that channel.”
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is set to be rested this week ahead of the away leg of the Nations Championship, which starts the following week, and that’s another reason why it is important for Nel to be fit.
For young Yaqeen Ahmed will start in his place at flyhalf, and while he is immensely talented and helped the Stormers out of a hole in his cameo role as a replacement against Scarlets, he is inexperienced and there could also be more disruptions to the backline.
Although they were arguably not clinical enough, Ulster showed themselves to be another good attacking team in their game against the Bulls.