John Dobson isn’t one of those people who you need to question to find out how he is feeling. The DHL Stormers director of rugby wears his heart on his sleeve and brings the weather with him, as he did to the press conference following his team’s loss to the Glasgow Warriors.
If there were prizes given out to coaches for honesty, he’d be the main contender for that award too. Dobson didn’t mince words about how disappointed he was and how much the defeat to the reigning champions had hurt his team’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship challenge.
Whereas after the recent loss to Edinburgh he said “It doesn’t feel as bad as this time last year”, when the Stormers had lost four games on tour, this time he didn’t hide from the fact they are up against it.
The next game they play against the Hollywoodbets Sharks in Durban on 30 November has suddenly become huge for the Stormers, who then face their first two Investec Champions Cup pool games, neither of which will be easy, before playing two home URC derbies, against the Emirates Lions and the return clash with the Sharks, over the festive week.
It is what lies ahead that probably prevented Dobson from reminding the media, as he could have, that there have only been five games played so far in the Stormers’ URC campaign. The competition is more a marathon than a sprint, and Munster, who are just two points ahead of the Stormers and have played a game more, were in a far worse position two seasons ago and won the trophy.
DESPERATION DROVE PREVIOUS RECOVERIES
In fact, the Stormers themselves were in a similar place the season before that, and they won the competition. Indeed, that was the only season of the three played in the URC so far where a team that finished in the top two on the overall log has gone on to win it.
The Stormers recovered from their poor start to finish second, and then the Vodacom Bulls helped them by knocking out the top team, Leinster, in the semifinal to set up a home final.
It was the memory of that experience, and the more recent one last season where they recovered quite well from their disastrous tour to eventually end fifth, that probably inspires every Stormers player who goes in front of an online media press conference to remind everyone that lagging early on is not new to the Stormers.
“We’ve been here before and we’ve got out of it,” is a standard line.
Here’s the thing though - there is a question that has to be asked every time that is said. Do you feel the same and is your mindset the same as it was then? So here comes the D word, and no, this time it is not defence, but desperation.
“SMALL TEAM” NARRATIVE WORKED
There was an intense level of desperation about the Stormers in that first season of the URC that drove their fairytale triumph. They were cast as underdogs, they were clearly operating on a much smaller budget than the Sharks and Bulls were, and Dobson never wasted an opportunity when talking to the media to describe his unit as “a small team”.
It was a narrative that worked both internally and externally. In the sense that it galvanised the players, and also inspired an emotional connection with his team from not only the Cape rugby public, but even rugby fans elsewhere in the country who would not normally be Stormers supporters.
The work rate and level of energy in the Stormers team in every match they played was phenomenal. Apart from their win over the Bulls at Loftus and again in the final, what stands out in my memory was their home game against the Sharks, where they just tackled their more rated (on paper) opponents out of the game. Desperation of course can be a big driver of the other D - defence.
And it was a similar story the following season. They didn’t have to fight back from a poor start then, and until they lost a close home game to Munster late in the season, they looked destined to finish second on the log again. Eventually they were pipped to third, but in a season where the driver was the desperation to prove that 2021/2022 was no fluke, they secured another home final.
Those two successful seasons though have changed perceptions. I am not sure if it has changed anything in the camp, and can only go on appearance, but certainly the outside view from the Stormers support base is that those first two seasons were the platform to push on to something bigger.
SUCCESS BUILDS EXPECTATION
Whereas a fifth placed finish would have been something to celebrate in that first season, last season it wasn’t. With success comes expectation, and while the URC is a heck of a tournament to compete in in terms of the competition that is developing for top spots, the expectation of the Stormers is that they need to go beyond a mid-table finish and compete for trophies.
That expectation is also partly driven by the fact that the Stormers now have equity partners in Red Disa. That has spawned the perception that they are no longer a low budget team, and should be competing in the transfer market with the Sharks and Bulls.
Of course perception and reality are two different things, and everyone knows that after years of Western Province being in administration, and all the poor management around the sale of the Newlands stadium, there are debts to be paid off.
But while I was one of the first to write that WP may have dodged a bullet when the Americans who wanted to acquire the majority equity share in WP moved instead to the Sharks, thus making that the wealthiest local franchise, and there were teething problems at the Durban union, those appear to have been sorted out now. And it is a fact that Marco Massotti’s first choice was the Cape.
Where because it is such a rugby rich region in terms of schools and the tertiary institutions that produce rugby talent, there should be an expectation for the Stormers to be serial challengers for top silverware. And we’re not talking URC here, but Champions Cup too.
Dobson has done an amazing job at the Stormers. And the decision to stick with the core of players who has brought him a measure of success so far is the right one and a laudable one. There are players on the Stormers books who are going to be much bigger names in years to come than they are now.
And they also have the best youth program in the country, as evidenced by the under-20s winning their competition.
So the Stormers are on a good wicket when it comes to building for the future, and they shouldn’t ever struggle again to the extent that they did when the WP union chiefs had way too much say over how the professional game was run.
SUCCESS NOW MAY REQUIRE MORE USE OF CHEQUE BOOK
But it is the here and now that is of concern, and the expectation for more immediate success, or maybe let’s call it growth from the platform created in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, from the fan base is understandable.
As is the view that making only three off-season acquisitions, one of which was an emergency SOS because Evan Roos was injured, really cuts it for a team with big ambitions.
Particularly not when you’ve lost a whole phalanx of players. Most of those were surplus to requirements, but to my mind the injured player the Stormers are most missing right now is Deon Fourie.
There was a like for like replacement, Nama Xaba, but he’s now playing for the Bulls. Paul de Villiers apparently had a great season as a scavenger for the under-20 team, but the jury was out on how ready he was for senior action when he played for the WP Currie Cup team. The X-factor linking abilities on attack of Hacjivah Dayimani are missed too.
When at full strength, meaning Fourie, Roos, Salmaan Moerat, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ben Loader, Steven Kitshoff (if he ever plays again), Sti Sithole and others who were watching from the sidelines in Stellenbosch at the weekend are all playing again, the Stormers will have a strong team. During the Glasgow game they also lost Damian Willemse and BJ Dixon, and that hurt their plan.
After watching the game again, it also confirmed my initial impression that Manie Libbok was on a few occasions taken out late and off the ball, as were a few other backs earlier in the game, and Dan du Plessis was definitely tackled before receiving the ball in one instance. And referee Andrew Brace did nothing. Perhaps because, unlike in overseas games, the crowd didn’t howl its indignation at him.
Watching the replay also brought a little bit of doubt to my initial impression, which appeared to be reinforced by Dobson saying after the game that he was disappointed his players didn’t work harder off the ball, that it is the D that was such a strong driver for them a few seasons ago that is missing.
For all the justifiable excuses though, and the injuries and reffing errors have cost them, there is something that feels a bit off. But what isn’t debatable is what the Stormers can do when they do play with the desperation of being a team that has something to prove.
It is that, the D, that will need to become prominent again if they want to challenge for the trophy they won three seasons ago.
That buzz and fizz we saw then might become more noticeable when they play as underdogs, which is what they will do in some of the big games that lie ahead.
It’s why I wouldn’t write their chances of going all the way again off completely, but that D does need to be there or even Champions Cup qualification for next season is no gimme.