By Gavin Rich.
You know that a team has grown when you listen to the coach speaking at a press conference following a win over the tournament champions and he spends quite a bit of it speaking about what his side did wrong.
That happened after what should go down as a famous DHL Stormers victory over European champions La Rochelle in an exciting and absorbing Investec Champions Cup clash at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town at the weekend. Coach John Dobson confirmed the impression from the press box during the game – his team departed from the script.
Dobson said on the eve of the game, which was the Stormers’ first feel of the new hybrid pitch at their home ground, that his men would be looking to shy away from too much contact with the big and physical La Rochelle pack and would be looking to their wide game to stretch the visiting behemoths in the mid-afternoon December heat.
In the end La Rochelle did run out of puff in the hot conditions, but it wasn’t achieved by the Stormers in the way that Dobson had intended.
“In truth, up until the last minutes I was a little disappointed in how we played,” confessed Dobson afterwards.
“We were playing against an international class team. It was like a test match out there, but one thing we did not want to do was get sucked into an arm wrestle, and that is what we allowed to happen. We didn’t implement our plan and while I am happy to have won, I am a bit frustrated by that.”
Cape side played at 65 per cent and still won
Dobson later said in conversation that his team played to 65 per cent capacity. And yet they won. Against La Rochelle, who before they lost to Leinster in driving rain the previous week had been on a 16-match winning streak in the toughest club competition in the world and who were at full strength for the Cape Town clash due to their desperation to turn the Leinster result around.
“Yes, make no mistake, I am very proud of the boys. We played and beat the best club team in the world, if there is a better club team than La Rochelle I would like to see that team. And as much as we left it to the last second, I do think we deserved to win.”
Indeed, while there was much talk about the luck the Stormers might have enjoyed courtesy of the try that was overturned a few minutes after the event by the TMO because of a head clash, and that kind of thing is most emphatically a blight on the modern game, the Stormers had some bad luck too.
How the TMO managed to rule that the Dillyn Leyds knock on was not conclusive, and that the later forward pass was not forward, in what at the time looked like the decisive second La Rochelle try, only he knows. There were also some errors from the onfield referee, Christophe Ridley-Scott, that went against the home team.
So while it is understood that La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara was incensed, and that was demonstrated by his failure to attend the post-match press conference, it was really a case of swings and roundabouts.
And there was also no denying the Stormers conspired against themselves, with both La Rochelle tries arguably being of the soft variety, with the first being down to some quite abysmal defence down the Stormers left flank and the second being the result of the cardinal and schoolboy error of not playing to the whistle.
There were soft moments aplenty. The Stormers did not play the game the coach wanted them to and fullback Warrick Gelant, let’s not hide from it, is currently just playing way too loose. And although he was the hero for his winning conversion and kick and a few other things he did, Manie Libbok didn’t exactly deliver the on script performance that was looked for either.
And yet the Stormers still won and have retained their unbeaten home record in the Champions Cup and the result atoned for their failure to beat Leicester Tigers away the previous week. It was recognised as a knock-out fixture by Dobson beforehand, but is not a done deal though that the Stormers win means they will go into the round of 16. Far from it.
Sale will be as tough
“There is a reason they call this the Pool of death, and it is very tough,” said Dobson.
“We play the Sale Sharks next in January, and that game is going to be as tough for us as this one. Sale are on a roll at the moment. Winning at home is important, and we did that. I said it was a knockout fixture beforehand and it was in the sense that we would have been left too much to do had we lost.
“The win makes it easier for us, we are definitely still alive, but the way I see it we are going to have to beat Sale and then get at least a bonus point in the following game away against Stade Francais. It’s a pity we didn’t get the bonus point we looked likely to get towards the end of our game against Leicester. That would have made a big difference.”
Dobson is right about Sale being in good form. Their loss to Leinster in Dublin at the weekend was with their understrength team. But if the Stormers can beat La Rochelle in Cape Town they can beat anyone, particularly if they sort out the problems that beset their challenge this past weekend, and there is also a glimmer of hope when it comes to that trip to Paris to play Stade Francais.
The French club lost at home to Leicester Tigers at the weekend, and they also lost their opening game, and French teams have earned themselves a notoriety for losing interest in the competition and instead focusing on the tough Top 14 if they lose early in the Champions Cup.
The Stormers will not be going understrength to Paris like they did to Leicester, and on the evidence of these past two weekends have every chance of pulling off what would be their maiden win on French soil in this competition. So while it is not job done, their current fourth position, which means at this point they qualify for the round of 16, signifies that they are still very much alive.