It used to be customary for a buildup to a DHL Stormers home play-off game to be dominated by questions about the Cape team’s mental strength, and understandably so given that in the Super Rugby era Newlands was the only venue an overseas team ever won a quarter or semifinal.
That dreaded ‘C’ word, meaning Choker, was first bandied around by Cape rugby supporters after the infamous Men in Black misfire in a home Super 12 semifinal against the Highlanders in 1999. The Stormers under Bob Skinstad, who was injured by the time the playoffs arrived, had been in such imperious form that many favoured them to go all the way, but they tripped up on a day where there was so much expectation.
And it cropped up again several times over the next decade and a bit, with the Crusaders twice winning semifinals in Cape Town and the Cell C Sharks once after flying back from Brisbane where they’d won the quarterfinal. In fact, the only semifinal won by the Stormers in the Super Rugby era, and they played in a few, was when they outplayed the Waratahs on their way to the Soweto final against the Bulls in 2010.
PRE MATCH NARRATIVE CHOKED BY CHOKING CONCERNS
More recently, meaning subsequent to 2015, there were also a clutch of play-off games against the Brumbies and the Chiefs that were won by the visiting team. When the losing at home scenario keeps repeating itself, it has to become a concern, to the extent that the whole narrative in the build-up to playoff games was choked by the concept of choking.
Even in last year’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal against Ulster, who led until the last move of the game, you could sense the subeditors on various media platforms sizing up the word “Chokers” for their headlines as mistake after mistake pinned the Stormers back in the dying minutes. It looked then like the Stormers were allowing the pressure to get to them.
But then came the crossing of a barrier when their late charge saw them draw level through Warrick Gelant’s equalising try before Manie Libbok, who’d been all over the place with his general game and his place-kicking for much of the afternoon, slotted the winning conversion from the touchline amidst scenes of unbearable tension.
CLOSE SEMI WIN WAS IMMENSE FOR BELIEF
Winning in that manner would have given the Stormers immense belief for the following week’s final against the Bulls, and the Cape side has retained a stranglehold on the Pretoria franchise subsequent to that title winning moment. Yet there is no denying the extra emotion that goes into any showdown between the two rivals, and the Stormers had to deal with a new kind of pressure for last weekend’s quarterfinal because they were going in as clear favourites.
The pressure of being the third placed finisher and Shield winner taking on the team that finished sixth, 15 log points behind you, would have been intense, with Stormers head coach John Dobson making no bones about it beforehand that he’d have preferred another opponent. Quite apart from it being the Bulls, their biggest rivals, a derby is always a leveller because of the smaller travel demand for the visiting team.
It felt like the Stormers had the most to lose and it might be why there was a lot of what my Supersport colleague Brenden Nel, observing as a visitor to Cape Town, referred to as “Cape angst” hanging in the air before last weekend’s game.
While there were some Stormers fans encountered at social gatherings in the days building up to the game who had bought into the theory that the Bulls had picked up momentum, most did agree that the Stormers, by virtue of how superior they had been to the Bulls in the regular season, would start as clear favourites.
AN UNSPOKEN CAVEAT
And yet there always seemed to be an unspoken caveat hanging over every conversation, something along the lines of “…but if they do lose we’ve seen this movie before”. Or “…but we’re worried the pressure of having to face the Bulls this early in the knock-outs will get to them.”
Those concerns were quickly dissipated in the early minutes of the quarterfinal, with the Stormers showing that the pressure of the occasion, of being favourites against their arch-rivals, wasn’t going to get to them. They played as if they wanted to enjoy every moment of the occasion, and there was never any danger of any ‘choke’.
Afterwards Dobson agreed that the way his team dealt with the intense pressure of knowing that their season’s work could be ruined by one poor 80 minute performance, and they’d have their arch-rivals lording it over them through the off-season, showed that they’ve now crossed a barrier when it comes to mental strength. He said it was all down to focusing on the process and the strategy put in place for the game.
“I think what was very important for us was that we didn’t want a repeat of the final last year, where they scored that try and we were up against it early,” said Dobson.
“We wanted to get away at the start and make them play catch-up, which we know against our defence and on this field is very hard to do. I thought that was one of our best performances and probably the easiest of our wins against the Bulls."
KEY IS UNDERSTANDING ROLES AND CONFIDENT EXECUTION
At the start of the buildup to Saturday’s semifinal against Connacht at the same venue, assistant coach Dawie Snyman expanded further on what Dobson had to say by stressing that the Stormers’ processes were now so sound and the players so confident in executing them that it took the stress out of the occasion.
“It all comes down to our understanding of ourselves and how our game works and what we have done to get ourselves into a playoff scenario,” said Snyman.
“We are able to go into a weekend with each player knowing what he has to do and what his job is. If you do your job and perform your designated role, then the rest will follow. That’s why we look like we have a nice flow to our game, and we are not stressed about what we are doing on the field, and that we are not affected by the pressure.We have done it successfully for a while now and that is why it will be the same in a final, a semifinal or just a normal league game."
A PLAYER’S VIEW
Sometimes the coaches get more stressed in the buildup than the players, so it was interesting to get the perspective of Dan du Plessis, who has become one of the Stormers’ persistent stand-out performers from his position in the midfield. For Du Plessis, in addition to the sticking to roles aspect referred to by Snyman, it all comes down to lessons that have been learned.
“It is all of that (what Snyman says), but we have also learned a lot of lessons, a lot of important lessons,” said the Stormers inside centre.
“Perhaps most recently the biggest lesson came in our defeat to Exeter Chiefs (in the Heineken Champions Cup quarterfinal). But I think we know if we stick to our own job, if we don’t try and do the job that is supposed to be someone else’s, and stick to our lane, then it will all come together. We know we just have to trust each other and what the coaches plan for us and stick to our systems and we will be okay (no matter how big the occasion).”