Stormers looking to power up in 2020

There’s unlikely to be much evidence of it when the DHL Stormers start their build-up to the Vodacom Super Rugby season by participating in the Varsity Day at Florida Park in Ravensmead on Saturday but coach John Dobson hopes the benefits of a change in approach will become obvious in the warm-up games that follow.

The Stormers are travelling to Knysna to face the Isuzu Southern Kings next Friday night before clashing with the Cell C Sharks at the FNB Stadium on Sunday and their supporters can expect to see the benefits of a greater emphasis on the development of explosive power in those two games.

“We have changed our game model quite substantially to focus on a more power based game rather than a phase based game,” said Dobson.

“Hopefully we will see some signs of the new game on the Super Hero day and against the Kings, probably not so much in this week’s hit out against the UCT and Maties sides in Varsity Day.”

Dobson used lock JD Schickerling’s experience in the Currie Cup last year as an example of why the Stormers have made the shift in their conditioning and their approach to the new season.

DOMINATING PHYSICALLY

“Back in 2017 JD was dominating everyone physically but last year it was noticeable in our last Currie Cup game against the Cheetahs how he was bullied by the likes of Ox Nche and Joseph Dweba. What had happened was that we had conditioned the players to match the four minutes of ball in play time produced by the New Zealand teams in Super Rugby, and that had negated the natural physical strength attributes of some of our players.

“We have a big pack and we have several players who were part of the forward unit that won the World Cup. We need to recognise that strength and play to it. We noted that 80 percent of the ball in play time at the World Cup in Japan, meaning whistle to whistle, was less than a minute.

“If the Highlanders come with four minutes of ball in play we will just have to show some guts, but we’ve put a big stress on developing strength and explosive power. The problem with someone like Frans Malherbe is that if we condition him to play ball in play for four minutes we lose something at scrum time.

“So there has been a big focus in the pre-season on explosive power and our game model is moving to what we saw from Western Province back in the day, meaning we use the pack to power up the momentum. We saw it work for the Boks at the World Cup although for us instead of looking for kick space we will be looking to use that momentum for our steppers such as Dillyn Leyds and Sergeal Petersen to capitalise on.”

Dobson stressed that powering up didn’t mean that the Stormers would be moving away from the Cape’s running rugby roots. Far from it. Indeed, scheduling Saturday’s Varsity Day for Ravensmead is part of what will be a big quest by the Stormers to reconnect with their fan base, and to do that it will be important to commit to crowd pleasing rugby.

’GET CAPE TOWN SMILING AGAIN’

“Our theme for this season is to get Cape Town smiling again, and the way we play will be a big part of that quest,” explained Dobson.

“We need to do something to change the way rugby is going in the southern hemisphere. We can’t just sit around talking about rebuilding and waiting for people to come to our games. We realise the support base has changed a lot since the Men in Black campaign of 21 years ago that had the Cape buzzing.

“The support we get on the Cape Flats is extraordinary. I was listening to a cricket podcast the other day where Jonathan Agnew said that part of the problem with South African cricket is where the stadiums are. That may be the case with rugby too. Our market has changed in the last few decades. It is a more competitive market, with people wanting to do things like mountain biking and bowls clubs are being closed down.

“A big part of getting people into the stadiums to watch us will revolve around how we play and how we engage with our fans. We can’t just sit here and wait for people to come, we can’t go into the new season under the radar and then expect there to suddenly be interest. So we are going out there and engaging. We know the community, and a few years ago we sold out Florida Park for a Supersport Challenge final.

“It is to engage with the fan base that we have stopped doing our hill training in Newlands forest and going to the BoKaap instead. We need to engage people so they will want to come watch us in this last year where we play at Newlands.”

Gates at Florida Park will open at 09h30 on Saturday morning and the DHL Stormers squad will play their first period against CPUT at 13h30, followed directly by 20 minutes against DHL WP XV at 14h00.

The players will then take a break as the Varsity teams battle it out among each other, with the final two 20-minute periods against UCT and five-time Varsity Cup champions Maties ending the day.

Entrance on the day at Florida Park will be R20, with parking also R20. The non-playing DHL Stormers will have a signing session at 14h30.

DHL Stormers Varsity Day squad: Kwenzo Blose, Deon Carstens, Ben-Jason Dixon, Lucky Dlepu, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Schalk Erasmus, Brendon Esterhuizen, Neethling Fouche, Hannes Gous, Michal Haznar, Lyle Hendricks, Thys Kitshoff, David Kriel, Hilton Lobberts, Leon Lyons, Godlen Masimla, David Meihuizen, Matt Moore, Juan Mostert, Sihle Njezula, Sazi Sandi, Cornel Smit, Chad Solomon, Abner van Reenen, Ernst van Rhyn, Chris van Zyl, Ali Vermaak, Nama Xaba, Leolin Zas.