The disappointment of losing to the Ospreys in their first Vodacom United Rugby Championship game of the new season was tempered for the DHL Stormers coaches by numerous positives, among them a successful return to the jersey for JD Schickerling.
The 29-year-old lock returned from a stint in Japan in the off-season to shore up the Stormers’ second row resources and together with Ruben van Heerden, who was recruited from the Sharks via the Exeter Chiefs while Schickerling was overseas, the locks delivered a strong performance.
Apart from returning a 100% success rate in the lineouts, an area of their game that hasn’t always been a Stormers strongpoint in recent times, both players were prominent on the drive. Both of them are also equally at home at No 4 or No 5 lock, with Van Heerden making the switch when Marvin Orie left the Stormers at the start of last season, so there is plenty of utility value.
But of course it does not end there for the Stormers when it comes to second row resources - Salmaan Moerat has now gained experienced of captaining the Springboks and will add to the depth in the position, while there is also Hendre Stassen and Adre Smith in the mix.
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And as forwards coach Rito Hlungwani reminded us in a zoom press conference from Parma on Tuesday afternoon, there are some other locks on the Cape franchise’s books that we should not forget about. In fact, Hlungwani miscounted, an indication of how many locks there actually are.
“We are very lucky to have four quality players in that position, and we actually have six, because although Connor (Evans) and Gary (Porter) are not on tour with us, they are there too,” said Hlungwani.
There are in fact seven if the Stormers factors those two players he mentioned in - Schickerling, Van Heerden, Moerat, Smith, Stassen, Evans and Porter. All of those players have played URC rugby, with Evans considered a star of the future while Stassen was also highly rated by head coach John Dobson but was unfortunately injured for much of his first season.
With depth at lock one of the keys to the success of the Boks’ so-called Bomb Squad policy at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, there is a chance for the Stormers to replicate that in the URC.
“We are lucky to have so many high quality locks, it is very pleasing,” he said.
“Going forward we will have to sit down and talk about how we manage them. It will be great to have two guys starting and then two guys with similar qualities coming on to provide impact in the second half. It will give us a nice edge. We want to use these guys as much as we can, ensuring we get the best out of them.”
Hlungwani said he was pleased with the way the lineouts went in the game against the Ospreys last weekend, but said it was soured by the result of the first tour match, with the Stormers losing 37-24 after looking likely winners for a long time.
“The lineouts went really well. We were quite happy with that and it is something we want to build on. It’s not just about the lineouts though, there is a bigger picture that we are working on. We were happy with the set-scrums too, they went really well. There were a couple of decisions that should have gone our way but didn’t. We are happy with the set-piece, but not with the loss.”
Indeed, while Hlungwani was clearly being careful not to be seen to be making excuses and also didn’t want to risk sanction for being too open, he confirmed that the reading of the scrums by the on field referee might well have cost the Stormers the game.
According to him, there were four scrum penalties that should have gone the Stormers’ way, and that was agreed by the URC refereeing officials when the coaches approached them for clarification on the calls. That’s a big dent in a game that the Stormers were pressing to win when they were camped in the Ospreys 22 with four minutes to go and trailing by six points but then gave away a breakdown penalty that was also questionable.
To add insult to injury, the Ospreys, when they got back into the Stormers’ half and transferred the pressure onto the visitors, were awarded a penalty try that stretched the Ospreys’ winning margin to beyond the seven points, which meant they didn’t even get what should have been a certain losing bonus point.