The confirmation that Springbok centre Damian de Allende would be out of rugby for 12 weeks due to an ankle injury was the dark note for the DHL Stormers as they started their build-up to Saturday’s clash with the Jaguares, but skills coach Paul Feeney reckons there is a silver lining.
Feeney hails initially from Auckland, where he was skills coach with the Blues, and knows a few things about talent. He is understood to have told anyone who would listen that Rieko Ioane would be the big thing in Vodacom Super Rugby this year, and the newcomer to the Blues midfield certainly made a massive impact on the opening weekend with his hat-trick of tries against the Rebels.
However, while acknowledging the great talent coming out of New Zealand, Feeney says he has been impressed with the raw promise of the players he is working with in South Africa, and reckons that with confidence and the right direction there is no reason the local players can’t be as good.(IT GRIEVES ME DEEPLY TO SAY THIS BUT WITH ALL THE BRAINLESS STUFF GOING ON IN SA RUGBY WE NEED OUTSIDE HELP AND EVEN FROM A KIWI!!!!)
So while Feeney said he was “gutted” for De Allende because of the injury that will make him start the year late, he is looking forward to seeing the talent that will play in his place adapt and come through on the bigger stage.
“Damian was obviously a big loss as you would have all seen what great nick he was in this year and he has put in an incredible amount of preparation during the pre-season,” said Feeney. (WAS VERY GOOD AGAINST BULLE)
“I feel gutted for him because I think he was the fittest he has ever been. He has been achieving personal bests in training and last Saturday against the Bulls we saw how good he can be at giving us good front foot ball. He put EW Viljoen (his midfield partner) into holes and really helped EW in his first game so he is a massive loss. But hey, things like this happen in rugby. I feel sorry for Damian but what happened happened and we have to move on.
“I’ve been very impressed with Dan du Plessis, who is only 20 years of age, and we all know what Huw Jones, who will be back with us this week, can do after watching him play for Scotland. It is a blow to have lost Juan de Jongh too because we lose a lot of experience and the flyhalf is young and so is the outside centre, but Dan Kriel came on as a replacement against the Bulls and I thought he was good. He is also a youngster. We do have good options.”
Head coach Robbie Fleck will of course be making the selection for Saturday’s clash, but Feeney hinted that the Stormers fans could see Jones returning in the No 12 jersey rather than as an outside centre, where young Viljoen – who is only 21 – was good on debut in the 37-24 win over the Bulls last week.
“Huw Jones with his pace is an excellent 13 but he also has the ability to be a good 12 and we can mix and match on attack,” said Feeney.
Referring to the outstanding performance of Ioane for the Blues, Feeney said that the youngster was outstanding but that there were players in the Stormers side that had similar X-factor.
“Ioane has fantastic feet, he really has fast feet, but we also have lots of X-factor in our backline, we may just be 20 kilograms lighter. But we’ve definitely got X-factor here.”
Of course for that X-factor to shine the team as a whole needs a good grounding and excellent preparation, and Feeney has rightly been lauded for the fast pace and skilled way that the Stormers started the new season last weekend. He preferred to deflect attention away from himself though and instead praised the other coaches for what they did and Fleck, rightly so, for identifying what needed to be worked on and for setting aside the time for a big focus on skill drills during the off-season.
“The boys have really been working hard, and I think you could see on Saturday that the conditioning has been excellent. The Bulls broke us once early in the game and we took a quick tap and SP Marais ended up scoring on the other end of the field. That ability to play quickly after running back to defend comes from good conditioning. The fitness showed.
“But there were also other aspects that were crucial. For instance we got the better of the Bulls at the set-pieces and that laid a platform. Scrum coach Pieter de Villiers and forwards coach Russell Winter deserve credit for that. The backs also finished their movements well and the forwards gave them good front foot ball. The good thing was that we didn’t give the Bulls a losing bonus point.
“It is only one game, and we mustn’t get carried away. There’s a long way to go. But credit for the good start must be given to Robbie, who has given hours and hours to working on attack lines and skills. With the amount of work we have done you’d expect those areas to improve, and they have. The key is that Robbie set aside the time.”
ONE HOPES FOR BETTER FROM THE MIGHTY STORMERS THIS SEASON AND THERE IS REASON TO BELIEVE THINGS WILL IMPROVE BARRING INJURIES AND BENT DOWN UNDER REFS!
