There was a good reason why DHL Stormers head coach John Dobson made it clear several weeks ago that he wanted his team to secure their Vodacom United Rugby Championship play-off spot and Champions Cup qualification before their final league game against the Scarlets.
Most of the South African teams felt like they were burnt a bit by the unfamiliarity to them of some of the northern hemisphere refereeing interpretations when they toured Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy at the start of the competition last September. But the Stormers have the freshest memory of how much difference refereeing calls can make to a game.
There won’t be many who’d quibble with the contention that the Stormers would have won their game against Connacht in Galway on their last overseas venture had it not been for Scottish referee Ben Blair, who penalised the home team just four times in a tight, bruising game. It did appear in that game that there were two sets of laws being applied.
There was strongly worded condemnation of Blair’s performance from back home, most notably from Supersport in-studio expert Nick Mallett, and it did lead to some soul searching on the part of the people entrusted with the task of overseeing the URC referees. There has still been the odd game, such as ironically when Connacht narrowly beat the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg, but generally the games on South African soil saw refereeing performances from northern officials that the home teams were happy with.
This final round of URC league fixtures though sees the South African sides travel to the north of the equator for the first time in over two months, and there should be understandable wariness that once the referees get in front of Welsh and Irish crowds, they will revert to the inconsistencies that were such a bone of contention earlier in the competition.
According to Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani, the struggle to adjust to the refereeing was one of the main reasons the South African teams made such a slow start to the competition. After their respective four match tours last September and October, the South African sides languished near the bottom of the log.
Subsequent to that an adjustment has been made and during the home run of fixtures, there were only two wins on South African soil in 24 starts for northern hemisphere teams. Hlungwani reckons there was a consistency to the refereeing he hopes will be replicated now the theatre of conflict in the URC is being switched to the northern hemisphere again.
“I think when we started our campaign with the first four games on tour we were not sure what getting into. It was a good experience though and we realised we needed adjustments,” said the Stormers forwards coach.
“A lot of the adjustment that was required was around the way the officiating happened, but once we got home we felt we had a much better feel of how the referees were blowing and there was better alignment between us and the referees. We built up a good understanding and if that continues overseas we will be happy with that.
“All we want is consistency from what we experienced in the games in South Africa and what we get when we go back there now. We felt we were aligned back here in South Africa and we hope that remains the case when we go north.”
The Stormers are chasing a home quarterfinal, which they will achieve if they finish in the top four. Any win, regardless of any bonus points, will be enough to secure that position, but ideally the Stormers would like to finish second, and win the South African Shield, both of which are realistic prospects.
So, although they have achieved their baseline goal for the season of qualifying for Europe and making the play-offs, there is still a lot riding on the game for the Stormers. Hlungwani feels that the lessons learned from the earlier visits to the northern hemisphere will hold the team in good stead against a Scarlets team that will be motivated by their quest to win the Welsh Shield, which is being closely contested between them and the Ospreys.
“From a preparation point of view the buildup has been good and now that we are deep in the competition we have more of a chance to study and therefore understand our opponents,” he said.
“We have a better idea of what to expect, we learned from the Connacht experience too, where we flew out on the Tuesday (before a Saturday game - this time the Stormers left on Monday). There are lots of lessons we have learned along the way to give us confidence ahead of this game.”