In a weekend of surprise results and a surprising number of away wins, it was the DHL Stormers that delivered the stand-out statement performance.
While the Vodacom Bulls dropped important points by losing to the Lions, and that result wasn’t a surprise given that coach Johan Ackermann went with such an inexperienced pack, and the Hollywoodbets Sharks looked like what they are right now, meaning second last, the Stormers stood tall with a performance of the ages at a Thomond Park venue they’d never won before.
They’d gone through the first phase of the competition unbeaten but this was the performance that underlined their status as proper contenders for the competition they won in its inaugural season, 2021/2022. Winning away against Munster is not easy, and they’ve now won four overseas games in succession, but there are other elements, meaning elements to their game, that underline their status as proper challengers this season.
Of course what made the win to go clear at the top of the log heading into the break for the start of the Investec Champions Cup all the more meritorious is that they did it without six international players who were on duty in Cardiff for the Springboks.
That was what swung the favourite tag in Munster’s favour before the game, as they had their Ireland internationals, like skipper Tadhg Beirne and flyhalf Jack Crowley, back in their team.
But most of the first choice Stormers Boks are backline players, and what really stood out from their win, and this is why you shouldn’t bet against them being alive in the deep end of the season again, was how they’ve developed their power game since last season’s disappointing quarterfinal exit at the hands of Glasgow Warriors at The Scotstoun.
What was disturbing about that game was how the Stormers appeared to be outmuscled, but John Dobson and his coaches clearly did the right things during the off-season for you could bet good money now on that being reversed if those two teams met tomorrow - even if the game was in Glasgow.
A GEAR-SHIFT THAT WAS PREDICTED
The Stormers scored 27 points in the second half due to a gear shift that was clearly planned and telegraphed when Dobson announced a monster ‘Bomb Squad’ type bench the day before the game. Locks JD Schickerling and Adre Smith had Oli Kebble, JJ Kotze and Sazi Sandi with them to make it a full replacement tight five, which is really the proper defining aspect of the Boks’ ‘Bomb Squad’, and Ruan Ackermann made up the extra forward.
That was quite a formidable combination to come on all at the same time in Limerick but in truth the Stormers had started to get physical ascendancy against their opponents even before those players came on. The momentum had switched in the Stormers direction after a rusty start after about the 30 minute mark.
Munster started off in a fired up manner and cooked for the first half hour, and scored three tries in that time. Although the Stormers scrum was always dominant, and that’s always a bad sign for opponents, a 21-6 deficit seemed a lot to make up in the remaining minutes. Particularly against Munster on their home field.
But the Stormers were so physically dominant, and so powerful, in that second half, where they scored 27 unanswered points, that even if the Stormers hadn’t won with their late intercept try to Ruhan Nel this report would still have been positive towards the Stormers.
Something has changed at the Cape franchise, something obvious to the eye - they no longer have to rely on attacks off transition and opposition mistakes, for the game to descend into chaos, they can properly outmuscle their opponent a la the Springboks.
There scrumming culture has been written about a lot but it bears repeating - they lost Steven Kitshoff last year and it is debatable whether Frans Malherbe will play again, plus Neethling Fouche was away injured until the Thomond Park game. And yet the Stormers continue to dominate all comers in this crucial area of the game.
NORTH/SOUTH DERBY SCRUM BATTLE WILL BE MONSTROUS
Of course there’s a date about a month’s hence, 3 January, that will tell us a lot more, for that is when they clash with the Bulls’ Bok front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar (assuming Jan-Hendrik Wessels is not back) and next year’s Stormers recruit Wilco Louw, in an eagerly awaited Cape Town derby. We know how good those players are, and Ruan Nortje will be in the Bulls’ second row.
But on the evidence of what we have seen so far there is no other pack that can come close to the Stormers when it comes to the scrums and they have become so formidable in other aspects of forward play too.
Note too that Ntuthuko Mchunu, rated by coach Dobson as a beast, has yet to play for the Stormers because of injury, there’s also Zachary Porthen who now has Bok rugby in his body, and against Munster Kebble, playing his first game for the franchise since 2017, looked for all the world like a spitting image for his legendary strongman father Guy, a monster scrummager from the late 1980s/early 1990s, both in physique and scrum dominance.
There’s a queue of players at loosehead, and now that Porthen is a Bok there’s a queue at tighthead too. Plus Louw coming next year. For the team as a whole, the fact that Ben-Jason Dixon, Cobus Reinach, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse are still to be added in the coming weeks should infuse further confidence - although there is no doubting those who have played in the stead of those players.
Which is one of the things that makes the Stormers so different from the struggling Sharks. Actually the difference in depth, and that can be blamed on the recruitment department at th4 Sharks that should have been axed years ago, is not the only point of difference between the two coastal franchises.
There’s also a level of organisation and an understanding of what it takes to build culture at the Stormers that appears to be completely absent at the Sharks.
Watching the Sharks play immediately after watching the Stormers was instructive. While the Stormers forwards work so hard, while the Stormers players always look so fired up and so energetic, the Sharks by contrast look slowed up. There was a brief period against Connacht where they became sharp and more direct, but for the most part they were far more listless and less driven than the Stormers.
The defeat in Galway was expected, the magnitude of the defeat was not. What was hoped for after five weeks off to prepare and work on their game, was some kind of evidence of Sharks progress. There was none of that. Apart from that period in the second half where they did have opportunities but didn’t take them, the attack is still poor and the defence, with another five tries conceded, is no better.
BULLS DISAPPOINTED BUT CREDIT TO THE LIONS
Talking about defence, the Bulls defence was all over the place against the Lions, who played well. Maybe, just maybe, those of us who criticised the Lions for being too focused on the Carling Currie Cup forgot something - there are enough breaks in the URC season to regroup and have a mini pre-season, and maybe the Lions planned around that. They’ve certainly been very impressive in their last two games.
Not so the Bulls, and when there was so much callowness in the pack it made no sense that Marcel Coetzee wasn’t there to bring some experience, and ditto the decision to leave Cobus Wiese on the bench. By the time Wiese came onto the field the Bulls were chasing the game.
And yet, while it was a bad day for the Bulls, perhaps the most encouraging individual performance in this weekend of URC rugby came from a Bulls player - the young wing Cheswill Jooste looks like a phenomenal player and his presence is surely an indicator that Canan Moodie should play his franchise rugby going forward in what arguably may become his best position for the Boks - outside centre.
Moodie at centre, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Jooste on the wings with Willie le Roux at fullback makes up quite a potent Bulls backline once at full strength.
And let’s not forget they were way below full strength against the Lions. They were poor in the Jukskei derby, their defence was off and the selection was questionable, but the time for judgement is when they have all their players back. That happens from now.
SIXTH ROUND VODACOM URC RESULTS
Ulster 47 Benetton 13
Dragons 10 Leinster 24
Vodacom Bulls 33 Lions 43
Zebre 14 Cardiff Rugby 29
Munster 21 DHL Stormers 27
Edinburgh 19 Ospreys 17
Connacht 44 Hollywoodbets Sharks 17
Scarlets 23 Glasgow Warriors 0