URC REVIEW: Outlook suddenly so much better for Stormers

There was a sense of déjà vu about the two Vodacom United Rugby Championship derbies the DHL Stormers played over the festive season - both in terms of what was needed when they went into them and in outcome.

Last year the Stormers played the Vodacom Bulls in the game before Christmas before playing the Hollywoodbets Sharks a few days before New Year, whereas this time around it was the Emirates Lions who were the first on their menu. But that’s a minor difference - what really matters was that in both seasons the Stormers needed to win both games to turn around their season, and both times they’ve pulled it off.

It was even better this time around if you consider that they scored four tries in both wins, meaning that they picked up a full house of 10 log points. Last season they scraped to a low scoring win over the Sharks, which to be fair was how it looked like turning out this time too until a late period of frenetic scoring and swopping of leads saved what until then was an error-ridden game.

ON CUSP OF TOP EIGHT WITH A GAME IN HAND

The upshot for the Stormers of Jean-Luc du Plessis’ match winning try two minutes from time in front of a full house at the DHL Stadium that numbered not far off 60 000 is that after being 13th on the log going into the weekend, which is where they also were before the Lions game, they have now lifted themselves to ninth and are within one point of a top eight spot.

In fact they were in the top eight immediately after the Sharks game, it was just the later games that changed that. Speaking of later games, a few caveats need to be added to give context to their position - they have games in hand on the teams just above them on the log.

While their next URC game is a tough one, away to log leaders Leinster, it does mean that they have access to the top eight and maybe even the top four beyond that as the teams in that bracket aren’t that far ahead anymore either.

Well, Leinster are, for they continued their winning run at the weekend, with arch-rivals Munster their latest victims.

With second-placed Glasgow Warriors having unexpectedly lost their big return 1872 derby at Murrayfield, Leinster’s lead at the top is now 10 points, which may actually help the Stormers in their Dublin meeting on 25 January as the game comes after two rounds of the Investec Champions Cup, which is an intense focus for Leinster, and a week before the start of the Guinness Six Nations.

While the Stormers have a game in hand on most of the teams around them, the Bulls and Lions are the exceptions. The Lions, in 11th, are within touching distance of the Stormers, with just a two point gap between them, and the Lions with a game in hand. The gap between the Stormers and the fourth placed Bulls is now just four points, but the Bulls also have a game in hand.

That game in hand though for the two inland teams is the Gauteng derby that is still to be played, so one of those teams will cancel the other one out. The Sharks and Stormers have played the same number of games, eight, and the fifth placed Sharks’ lead is now just three points on their Cape rivals.

WAVE OF RETURNING PLAYERS TO BE ADDED TO

The other big positive for the Stormers is that the wave of top players that have flooded back into their system over the past two weeks are set to be added to when they go back into action for a home Champions Cup group game against Sale Sharks on 11 January.

Stormers coach John Dobson confirmed after the win over the Sharks that Evan Roos and Sti Sithole are among the players who will be back in the selection mix, as will Leolin Zas.

With the exception of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who failed to see out the first half of either match, but should be ready for the January fixtures, and Zas, who suffered a niggle against the Lions that forced him to miss the Sharks game, the Stormers had a good run with injuries across the two derbies.

INJURY WORRIES BUT SHARKS GOT SOMETHING

The same can't unfortunately be said for the Sharks, who lost Andre Esterhuizen and Aphelele Fassi in the second half to what could potentially be serious injuries, something that could compromise the Sharks when they play their big home Champions Cup game against Toulouse two weeks from now.

Sharks coach John Plumtree is expecting a phalanx of Boks back for that game though, including Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth, and he also wasn’t too upset by the loss to the Stormers, preferring to praise his men for the fight they showed than lamenting the loss.

Indeed, the losing bonus point picked up could turn out to be just that, a bonus, going forward. The two coastal derbies were remarkably similar to each other this season, with the one on 30 November featuring the Stormers being in a charitable mood in terms of the huge amount of scoring opportunities they missed out on, and it was a similar story at the DHL Stadium.

The difference was that the Stormers did get over the line four times in Cape Town, and also got across the line as winners, whereas in Durban four weeks earlier they had to be content with what the Sharks had to be content with at the DHL Stadium - a losing bonus point and the frustration of having what would have been a last gasp winning try cancelled by the TMO.

Plumtree is right about his team showing pluck. A different Sharks team from past seasons would have been put away by a big score by a Stormers team that was dominant in most aspects of forward play and repeatedly opened up the Sharks defence in the second half but only got a late reward for their efforts.

WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Munster 7 Leinster 28

DHL Stormers 24 Hollywoodbets Sharks 20

Zebre 12 Benetton 24

Edinburgh 10 Glasgow Warriors 7

Connacht 7 Ulster 17

To be played in this round (both New Year’s Day)

Cardiff v Ospreys (Cardiff, 17.00)

Scarlets v Dragons (Llanelli, 19.15)