DHL Stormers head coach John Dobson loves to talk about the Full Metal Jacket approach when his team is going all out and going with their strongest selection but whether that figurative clothing comes out of the cupboard this week still hangs in the balance.
With several Springboks out due to the national resting protocols, others injured and still others requiring management due to a busy 2022 and high game minutes, Dobson would have preferred his team to be over the hill and far away from all contenders when it comes to both their second position on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log and in terms of South African Shield position.
However, the defeats to Glasgow Warriors and then the decision to take an understrength side to Ulster, which was driven by necessity, undermined the momentum that had been picked up over the festive season, when the Stormers picked up full points from both their home derbies against the Vodacom Bulls and Emirates Lions.
Had that not been the case, and had they managed to win one of those games, which would have meant a 14 or 15 point buffer on the Bulls at this point in the race for Shield honours, the Stormers would almost certainly have gone to Loftus for the return north/south derby with a very under-strength team.
NO DECISION ON MANIE AS YET
They may still do that, but it appears the Cape coaches would rather keep their opponents guessing, for defence coach Norman Laker says that decisions on the final selection are still to be made.
And the big question, the one that hovers over whether the Stormers’ ace playmaker Manie Libbok will wear the No10 jersey in Pretoria, cannot be answered just because there has been no decision as yet.
“I would be lying to you if I told you we were taking Manie to Pretoria, and I would also be lying to you if I told you we were not taking Manie to Pretoria,” said Laker when asked whether Libbok was playing.
“We are still making a decision on that, we are still assessing a few niggles that Manie is carrying and establishing whether he should play or not. It is the same with several other players. It is not just the Springboks who are being rested because of national resting protocols that need to be protected. There are also other guys who have high game minutes who need to be managed and we will look at how many minutes guys have played before making a decision.”
OTHER PLAYERS COULD ALSO BE IN LINE FOR A REST
There are some obvious names that jump out when you look at players who have had a long almost unbroken rugby season that started at the beginning of the 2021/2022 campaign.
Deon Fourie, who of course is as big a player for the Stormers as Libbok is, was part of the Springbok Castle Lager Rugby Championship campaign when the other players were enjoying the offseason following the Stormers’ URC triumph last year.
Although he never played that much for the Boks, he was both on the Rugby Championship tour and the end of year tour, and would have had to participate fully in training sessions.
The amount of time spent on the field at practice is as important when determining whether a player needs rest as the time he spends on the field in a match.
Second row workhorse Marvin Orie would have been another player who’d jump out at you when assessing who needs to rest and who doesn’t, but he is part of the resting protocols so won’t be available to the Stormers until they host the Harlequins in their Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 fixture at the end of the month.
“There are guys that we need to manage for the national interest, guys who might be needed at the World Cup,” agreed Laker.
Dobson will also be looking at what is coming up. He might well in the back of his mind acknowledge that it will be hard to beat the Bulls away when he has so many players out and his opponents aren’t far off full strength.
His thought process might indeed be similar in some ways to what it was when his side went to Ulster a few weeks ago - he knew then that there was an important game against the Sharks following it where his team can go all out to regain any ground they might lose in Pretoria.
TANTALISING CARROT TO MOTIVATE CAPE TEAM
However, apart from the extra pressure the Stormers will take onto the field against the Sharks if they lose in Pretoria, there is a tantalising carrot being dangled in front of them in this game - while defeat will not kill their challenge for the Shield trophy, just make it a little less assured, a win in the Bulls’ back yard will effectively clinch the conference title.
If the Bulls lose, they will be 14 or 15 points behind the Stormers with just four matches remaining, and that’s just too much ground to make up.
With a gap of two weeks between the Bulls game and the return against the Sharks, there’s good reason for the Stormers to believe they can empty the tanks at Loftus in a quest to kill the conference battle.
Regardless of whether they succeed in their quest or not, they will have another bye week to look forward to before they next go into battle.
A player that the Stormers genuinely do appear uncertain about ahead of Loftus is Hacjivah Dayimani, who missed the Sharks game because of a leg injury.
“Hacjivah is looking really good in training, he will either be back in the next few days or in the next few weeks,” said the defence coach.
That quote just about sums up as much as all of us know about what team the Stormers are likely to put out at Loftus - it’s pretty much up in the air. We will know on Friday, which is when the Stormers team is due to be announced.