By Gavin Rich.
DHL Stormers coach John Dobson managed to draw some inspiration from the fact his team was so disconsolate in the change-room after his team’s 10 point defeat in their opening foray into the Heineken Champions Cup.
The Stormers went into the game as rank underdogs as the Marcel Michelin Stadium in Clermont-Ferrand is known as a particularly difficult venue for visiting teams, but gave themselves hope during a first half where they controlled the game to take a 14-3 lead. However, after halftime Clermont got into the game, as did the decibels of their supporters, and the yellow and blue momentum both on and off the field ended in a 24-14 defeat.
The Stormers had only lost once before that this season, and before that you had to go back to February, when they lost narrowly and a bit unluckily to Connacht in Galway, so it was understandable the change-room was bleak afterwards. From that though Dobson found some positives.
“We will be richer for this experience. When it comes to opening games in the Champions Cup, they say there isn’t a much tougher place to go than away to Clermont, and yet we have a very upset change room because we didn’t win the game,” said Dobson.
“We hung in with Clermont and we are very disappointed with our performance as we felt we gave it away. But at the same time there aren’t many harder places you can come to and there is a lot we can remedy so we are really excited about the rest of the tournament.”
The defeat, and in particular the failure to pick up a bonus point, has placed the Stormers under pressure as they host London Irish in their second game on Saturday night. It should be easier against the Gallagher Premiership side, who nonetheless sounded a warning by losing by only five points at home to French champions Montpellier, but apart from the improvements that need to be made, the Stormers also have some mounting injury concerns.
“Gary (Porter) has a broken rib and Ernst (van Rhyn) has done something to his MCL, so it was not great day at the office from that point of view but luckily we have the depth we have spoken about,” said Dobson.
Both injuries proved problematic for the Stormers, as Porter was the leader of the lineout and Van Rhyn, who went off very early in the game, also had a key role to play in that phase and was the back-up lock.
BJ Dixon, who switches between lock and flank, came on as replacement for Van Rhyn, but his card in the 10th minute impacted on how he could approach the rest of the game.
“After BJ’s yellow card my message to him was that he must just focus on not being carded again (because then it would turn to red), and then he had to switch to lock, so it wasn’t ideal,” said Dobson.
Skipper Steven Kitshoff said the loss of Porter and Van Rhyn had made a big difference to the Stormers’ ability to exit, which was one of their big problems in the second half.
“How do I put this, Gary and Ernst are both lineout specialists and they are both very plan orientated, so it was hard for us to get stuck into our plan in the second half, “said Kitshoff.
“We had game breakers coming off the bench, but the error rate cost us a bit, and we had big trouble exiting from our 22. In the second half our attention to detail and our execution dropped off by a mile. But we took a lot of learnings from the experience.
“We will have to have a hard look at our defensive system. Not there is anything wrong with it, just that it wasn’t there at its usual level in the second half. Guys who normally make great reads just weren’t there.”
Part of that might have been down to the reconfiguration of the back row due to the injuries.
“Junior (Pokomela) ended up standing in at No 7, which he hasn’t played all season, and that does make a difference to the defensive plan,” agreed Dobson.
With Evan Roos, the star player of last season, also still out with a broken rib playing for the Boks, Dobson will have some thinking to do before he chooses his back row for the London Irish game. The second row gap left by Porter’s injury though is easier to fill – Springbok lock Marvin Orie was rested for the Clermont trip and will strengthen the Cape team and the lineout options for the visit by the English Premiership team on Saturday.
Frans Malherbe, also rested, should be back too, which will mean the Stormers start with a tight five made up completely of players who have played international rugby for the Springboks.