There is reason to feel pleased with life when you are struggling to differentiate one rugby season from another, and the previous one you ended up as Vodacom United Rugby Championship champions.
That is the way it has been for the DHL Stormers so far in the admittedly still embryonic stages of this URC campaign, with the retention of some bad habits from the 2021-22 term being outweighed by the retention of the habits that led to them winning the title in the competition's inaugural season.
Dobson spoke last week about how he has to almost pinch himself to remind himself that the team he is watching is busy with a new campaign and still not travelling down the road to the final that his team won in June.
“I don’t know what it is, but I was thinking after the Connacht game that the transition from one season to another has been almost seamless, even down to the similarities between Blommies (Clayton Blommetjies) and Warrick (Gelant),” said Dobson a week ago.
“Then there was the fact that we again got our bonus-point try off the last move of the game. We did that several times last season.”
DID IT AGAIN AGAINST EDINBURGH
They did it again this past weekend. Even though the Stormers were down to 14 men due to the rather ridiculous, from the match official competency viewpoint, red card against Sazi Sandi, you somehow knew that when the Stormers had an attacking lineout as they set for the last move of the game, that they would score. They did just that, with newcomer Suileman Hartzenberg completing his try-scoring brace.
Dobson is right about Blommetjies too. No one would argue that Blommetjies is in the same class as Gelant. There is a reason that Gelant is a Springbok and Blommetjies isn’t. But Blommetjies is the perfect replica for last year’s star Stormers fullback in terms of playing style and the way he fits into the Stormers’ pattern.
This is another example of where Dobson and whoever may help him with that job at the Stormers has got it spot on. There is a science to recruitment. It is not just about getting the player you might perceive to be the best or the most flamboyant, it is about getting the right fit for the playing template and the culture. That is something the Stormers’ more financially-secure coastal neighbours in Durban might not be getting so spot on, or at least haven’t up to now.
Perhaps the financial imperative that governs modern professional rugby is worth focusing on for its role in the Stormers’ success in 2021-22 and the way they’ve perhaps surprised some by hitting the new season running. If there’d been a hangover from last season’s success, it would have been completely understandable, but so far that doesn’t appear to have been the case, even though the Stormers forwards were fast asleep in the first half against Edinburgh and Dobson had to wake them up at halftime.
ESCHEWING BIG MONEY MAY HAVE HELPED
The Stormers eschewed the big money when the Americans who then invested in the Cell C Sharks came visiting a few years back. It wasn’t the wisest thing to do given the financial straits the Western Province union was in, but it has maybe worked for them in the sense that in the absence of the cash that brings in big-name marquee stars, they’ve had to make do with what they have coming through in the Western Cape region.
And that happens to be quite a lot, with Hartzenberg being the latest example of the talent identification of Dobson’s crew being spot on. Even several of those from outside who have been added to the Stormers’ resource base, such as Blommetjies and Marvin Orie, who was highly impressive both in his on and off-field role as Stormers captain this past week, were initially from the region. And therefore they find it easier to fit in.
In Blommetjies’ case, there is a sense that he may be found out somewhere down the road, that he could end up having a really bad game somewhere. But that was also what they said about Manie Libbok when he moved down from the Sharks. To be fair to the detractors, there was a game in Durban last year where Libbok was horrible, and again in the URC semifinal against Ulster before he rescued it with the winning pressure kick.
However, Dobson as a coach just seems to work for some players. Remember how he took Libbok after the Kings Park misfire in January and told him not to worry about it, he was going to be backed no matter what. The same probably applies to Blommetjies and we may see the same upsurge in the player's career, as there has been in several of the other players on the Stormers’ books.
A LOT OF SAME KIND OF DEPTH
Going into this year, the big fear was that the extra games being added through participation in the Champions Cup would stretch the Stormers’ depth to breaking point. That might well prove to be the case in time, but at this point, it feels like they are well covered in most positions. It may be a certain kind of depth, meaning no big-name superstars (though several, like Damian Willemse, are busy becoming that), but there is an interchangeability in most positions that augurs well for the season ahead and Dobson’s ability to manage his resources through the more pressure stages of the respective URC and Champions Cup campaigns.
“Suileman was an example of the exciting youth we have available, and there are so many names coming through in this region, which is a lot of credit to the coaches, the way they are getting players from all the communities,” was skipper Orie’s take on it after the win over Edinburgh.
Dobson is in agreement and went further: “It feels like we are on the edge of a special generation, particularly if you look at the under-21s coming through and also the players already playing for us who could still be under-21, like Suileman, Sacha (Mngomezulu), Kade (Wolhuter) and Conor (Evans).”
PATIENCE IS KEY TO HITTING FUTURE TARGETS
When you talk about youthful promise, you don’t automatically infer that success will be immediate. Stormers fans and other stakeholders should be wary of allowing last year’s URC win to raise expectations too high. And if you read or listen to Dobson’s words carefully, it is clear he knows that.
“If we can keep this group together we could be in a really good space in a few years,” concluded Dobson.
Exactly. Those Cape fans who can recall the elation and heady delight of winning the URC just a few months ago might argue that the Stormers are already in a good space. But building a special era of success, where winning trophies starts to happen regularly, requires patience. If the Stormers, with Dobson at the helm, continue down their current path, the future down the long road looks a bright one.