When you score nine tries in routing an opposing team it is only really injuries that can cast any kind of negativity over the occasion but that is precisely what happened to the DHL Stormers on Sunday night.
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It was never a race as a boisterous crowd of 2000 - it felt like a lot more - in the Danie Craven Stadium urged the Stormers on to a 55-7 win over Zebre Parma in the first home game the Cape side have played against overseas opposition in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
The Stormers scored five of their tries in the first half and took a 33-0 lead into the halftime break, which was the cue for Stormers coach John Dobson to give some of his back-up players a run. One of those was the highly promising young hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, but unfortunately fate was to conspire against the Stormers as Venter had to be helped from the field at the end of the third quarter in obvious discomfort.
“We still have to send Andre-Hugo for scans but unfortunately it doesn’t look good,” confirmed Dobson afterwards.
“He came off with an ankle injury. We thought we could give him some game time seeing we were so far ahead but unfortunately that didn’t work out and it could be problematic for us if he is ruled out for some time as we are a bit thin at hooker. We don't know the extent of the injury as yet but it looked consequential.”
Indeed, hooker is one of the few areas where the Stormers don’t have much back-up at present following Springbok Bongi Mbonambi’s departure for the Sharks. Chad Solomon’s is the next in line and should find himself in the Stormers squad should the worst fears about Venter be confirmed and he be ruled out of the forthcoming matches, but otherwise the skipper for the day Deon Fourie might have to consider the possibility of a return to his old position.
Fourie has played almost all his recent rugby at openside flank, where he has excelled, but admitted that when Scarra Ntubeni came back onto the field when Venter was injured he got a bit nervous.
“I said to Scarra that he mustn’t get injured if he did I would have had to move to hooker and I didn’t fancy having to wake up tomorrow with my body feeling sore like it does when you play in the front row of the scrum,” admitted Fourie.
“I still throw in with the hookers during training and do some of the other basics of hooker play but it is a long time since I have played the position. When I was overseas I played a few times when there was an emergency, and I can do that now if it is necessary. But hopefully it won’t be necessary as we do have some other good hookers, like Chad, in the queue.”
It was otherwise a good night out for the Stormers, who were true to their pledge of playing a style of rugby they believe conforms to the attacking DNA of Cape rugby. Some of the running at the back was pretty sublime, as was the linking between backs and forwards and the counter-attacking. Had it not been for the inevitable tendency to get a bit carried away and over-elaborate when you are ahead, the Stormers would probably have run up a score close to 80.
“I think we got a bit seduced by the margin and the style of rugby we were putting together and that led to mistakes. There were 10 turnovers against us in the first half and that is not good enough. We weren’t as good as we should have been at the defensive breakdown and we could have been sharper,” said Dobson.
The Stormers coach had promised a quick paced, attacking game from his team so he admits he was a bit concerned when he woke up on Sunday morning to grey skies and rain.
“We started off last week expecting the game to be played in 34 degree heat but then during the build-up the forecast kept changing and in the end it was quite cool at 18 degrees and it was a bit wet after the rain earlier in the day,” said Dobson.
“But that probably helped us. Because it wasn’t hot, we didn’t have to manage ourselves and we could push a bit more.”
The Stormers face Cardiff in Cape Town on Sunday in their next game and Dobson is expecting all the players who did duty in Stellenbosch with the exception of Venter to be available for selection.
“Warrick Gelant came off at halftime complaining of a tight hamstring so we rested him in the second half as a precautionary measure. He will be fine for Sunday,” said the coach.
“Adre Smith also went for an HIA but he will be fine and Dan du Plessis has now been cleared to play so we have a lot of options for next week.”
Rikus Pretorius made a solid return to rugby after injury when he played in the midfield for Damian Willemse, who had to move to Gelant’s place at fullback in the second half, so with Du Plessis returning the Stormers certainly do have options at inside centre. However, given how they played in the first half, Dobson didn’t surprise anyone when he confirmed that Willemse will continue at No 12 and Gelant at 15 when the Cardiff challenge arrives on Sunday.