The DHL Stormers coaches laid out a plan to the players for what will for them be a busy December and they will stick to it even though the performance of the second string players exceeded expectations against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
The Stormers were impressive with the way they stayed in the fight and even dominated the international laden English club, who had Argentina captain Julian Montoya in addition to the two Springbok World Cup winners Handre Pollard and Jasper Wiese and a phalanx of England capped players in tow in their opening away Investec Champions Cup game three days ago.
Several unheralded players stood up and made themselves noticed in a 35-26 defeat that flattered the hosts, with the television commentators and the UK media raving about the play of flyhalf Jurie Matthee, lock Conor Evans, No 8 Keke Morabe and of course veteran front row forward Brok Harris.
Hendre Stassen, making his first start at this level since testing positive for a banned substance while playing for Stade Francais four years ago, also put in an impressive shift and looks like fulfilling coach John Dobson’s prediction that he will become a beast of a player. Nama Xaba carried well and did his scavenging role well at openside flank.
If you can play well in an away game at one of the shrines of global club rugby, surely then you should be in line for game time in a home game at DHL Stadium, with champions La Rochelle visiting Cape Town this weekend for an eagerly anticipated fixture made all the more appetising by the fact it will be the Stormers’ first game on their newly laid hybrid surface.
Experienced flanker and Springbok World Cup winner Deon Fourie joked about it at a press conference on Tuesday: “It was a bit stressful for us as it showed all of our positions are in jeopardy,” he laughed.
Switching to serious mode, he added “It shows that the union is succeeding with the drive towards the depth that we are creating at the moment.”
CAN FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT DEPTH
Indeed, after Sunday’s performance, Dobson can feel confident that any player who played at Welford Road will be prepared if required in the coming games against the French team and the two Vodacom United Rugby Championship derbies that follow after that against the Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks.
“We already had a plan for the December games that every player in the squad knows about,” said forwards coach Rito Hlungwani.
“We are obviously very happy with the guys who put their hands up, but all those players already know the plan we have for La Rochelle, the Bulls and the Sharks, and we will stick to that plan. One of the main reasons we decided to keep the first choice players behind was the hectic travel schedule.
“Some of the guys aren’t even back yet, they are still in the air. We want fresh players on Saturday.”
EXCITED ABOUT FIRST GAME ON NEW SURFACE
Both Hlungwani and Fourie concurred that it was exciting to be back in Cape Town looking forward to the first game of the season at a DHL Stadium where new URC champions Munster have been the only visiting teams to win since the Emirates Lions won there in early December 2021, and both those Munster wins were in really close games.
“It’s really exciting to be playing in front of our fans again and to be playing on a new surface,” said Fourie.
“It’s time to pack away the long studs. There will be no more of the slipping around that we experienced on the DHL Stadium surface last season. Playing at 3pm on a Saturday will be good. Hopefully everyone can come out and support us against a very good La Rochelle team that I played against when I was still in France and they were first starting to pick up winning momentum.”
CHAMPIONS WILL BE SMARTING
La Rochelle are of course not just the reigning champions, they are also two times champions. And they will be smarting after losing a rare home game to Leinster this past weekend.
“Our goal two and a half years ago was to get to have experiences like we will have on Saturday playing against the top teams in Europe in the elite European competition,” said the Bok utility forward.
“They are coming to us as champions of the previous two years and they are also recognised as big guns in the Top 14. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. I know LaRochelle from back then when I was in France and they already had a nice squad building. I think they will be very upset about losing last weekend as they had a great winning streak at home that stretched back over a couple of years.
“So we are under no illusions that they will come to Cape Town fired up to get the result they didn’t get last week. But we feel we are ready. We struggled a bit initially against Zebre, but that game was all about getting the win after a sequence of losses. Although our overseas tour wasn’t good we always stayed in the fight in those games and games like that build character and build a stronger team.
“It is a long season. Munster struggled initially last season and then fired in the second half of the season and won the URC. We feel we are building nicely and the Tigers game showed that we are getting our systems in place at the Stormers.”