Jean backs coaching staff at Stormers

DHL Stormers captain Jean de Villiers gave a public endorsement to the franchise’s much maligned coaching staff after his team’s face-saving 20-15 win over the Reds in a Vodacom Super Rugby match at Newlands at the weekend.

De Villiers was clearly quite emotional at the post-match press conference as he spoke about one of the most satisfying wins of his career.

“To have 16 players out injured and still to be able to beat a quality Reds team says a lot about us as a franchise,” said De Villiers. (No question about it Jean it was a magnificent achievement - perhaps the achievement of the competition thus far!)

“We have had a tough run lately and have lost a lot of close games that have put us in a bad position on the log, but this win in the circumstances that we faced showed that we do have the right coaches and those coaches have also selected the right players. The win showed what the Stormers stand for.” (Jean I cant agree boet. Too many selection mistakes and wrong gameplan have also cost the Stormers over the past few seasons. One win doesnt cancell out all this - the coach that has kept things falling part is Nieaber whose defesive coaching must be thebest in the world)

They may be out of the competition race but the Stormers did answer De Villiers’ call for them to show pride in the jersey, and the reason De Villiers felt it was such a noteworthy achievement was that the injury situation at the Stormers is so dire at present that players have had to be drafted in from club level to make up the numbers. _Jean of courwe youare right but mongs like ou rooitwit and a few other mongs dont like dealing with reality and call it an excuse)

There were also seven changes from the last game against the Rebels, most of them forced by injury.

“With so many players out we had no business to be beating the Reds, and that we did was a great achievement. It will give us confidence.” (Absolutely right and I fo rone did not expect a win although one hoped that fighting Stormers spirit may just do it)

De Villiers said the difference between this match and the previous ones where the Stormers fell short was not so much about a change in tactics, but was rooted in better execution of the basics.

“In the previous games we couldn’t put phases together because we kept making mistakes, particularly silly handling errors. In this game we were able to put phases together and that made all the difference. There’s never been anything wrong with the attitude, just the execution, and today we showed what can be done if we get the execution right.”

An example of the Stormers getting their execution spot-on was the cross kick from Elton Jantjies that found Bryan Habana, who then produced a perfect inside pass to Joe Pietersen, who drew the defenders perfectly before putting De Villiers in for a run down the left flank that reminded fans of the days when he was on the wing for the Springboks earlier in his career.

“Jean was outstanding tonight, and so were Bryan Habana, Damian de Allende and some of the other players. Tiaan Liebenberg made a strong return after injury,” said coach Allister Coetzee.

“I am proud of the team because this achievement, considering the pressure we have been under, shows what the team is about. It showed great character for us to win and character is something that cannot be coached.”

De Villiers praised the halfbacks, Louis Schreuder and Elton Jantjies, for how they managed the game.

“We are playing more off 10 at the moment, but we have the ability to do both, and credit must go to Louis and Elton. Eight of the 15 starters tonight were under-23 and that says something great about the future of this union. From an emotional point of view it was a huge day and right up there with my other experiences in rugby.”

The Stormers will take the day off from training on Monday before starting their preparation for their next match against the Southern Kings at Newlands (Saturday, 5.05pm) on Tuesday

Yes a great win but I remain very doubtful as to whether Allistair is the right man for the job. Also please get to the bottom why there were all these injuries.

Beeno

I doubt not that Coetzee would run back to De Jongh the moment he is back in training - would be a huge mistake and that could mean the Stormers in a play-off scenario.   De Jongh is known for silly handling errors as well.  Jantjies for a change had an acceptable game - he did not make any silly and costly mistakes on  Saturday - like he did in all preceeding games - so lets hope he continues like he did on Saturday. 

The Stormers cant bully anyone with this pack so are forced to play more enterprising rugby.

One only trusts they have enough to down the kings. Should be okay.  Ideal would be a 5 pointer both times round! 

Allende is a must as is Tiaan. Wish one had more information regarding expected return times of players.

Here is a take re Stormers game plan.

By Gen De la Rey:

Although most people would say that a defensive game plan is a low risk one in that it will almost always keep the game a low scoring affair.

It is difficult for teams to score tries against you thus this game plan will always keep you in the game. This is why the highly ranked teams will find it difficult to win against such a game plan. (hence the Stormers winning against Chiefs, Brumbies, Reds)

But the flip side of this is that you yourself do not attack to much and lower ranked teams like Rebels will also have a chance to win. It is a game plan where you try to stop the other team from scoring and then score once or twice yourself. Problem is when you have a lapse in concentration or a bad ref call this will throw the whole game upside down. Because instead of being 10 – 15 points ahead you are only 3 – 5 points ahead.

The reason why the Stormers feels so hard done by the refs esp in their tour down under is that in all the games they had dominated most facets of the game. If they had a more attack minded game plan they would have been further ahead and it would not have minded if you had a ref shocker or a defensive laps. (Sorry general but one should not have these shockers - a team desereves a fair deal - but I understand your drift - which is the more points you score the less chance a crooked ref can nail you but that is a very obvious observation which Coetzee should have picked up on)

It is not just that you do not have enough dummy runners and switches but because 95% of time on the training field are used for 1st phase training and defensive training the players actually do not know what to do with the ball when they get it. They sometimes struggle to catch and pass.

So whilst a defensive game plan can win you a world cup and will give you a chance to win in most games you play no matter who you play it will keep you from putting away the lesser teams when you should.

Thanks for Stormers for winning although the game was a bit of a snore fest. But AC and co will seriously have to reconsider their approach to practice during the week and start using sometime to work out attacking plays that could score you a try. Otherwise I just cannot see the Stormers winning the cup.

Well how this oak thinks we can still win the cup is beyond me perhaps he is referring to future years and there I do agree with him. The approach used has neglected the attacking potential of the team for some years now as as the seelctions  In this respect Coetzee has blundered.

Now that the forards are not at full strenght one will have to score some tries againt the kings. Hopefully we can do that.

Who are the 16 injured players?

p ciliers
d fourie
de kock steenkamp
a bekker
r elsdat
d vermeulen
n groom
p grant
de jong
j taute

thats obviously not 16, but they are the main ones and when u look at it, those are some pretty sginficant losses.
still ive seen worse, the crusaders team in 2011 who beat the stormers in newlands were missing more players and suffered an injury count during the game the likes of which ive never seen before,

stormers inability to attack is their biggest problem IMO, their defense is awesome, but their attack is kak and would be even worse if it wasnt for the likes of habana whose individual briliance plays a huge role in the teams trys for the season.
a waste of talent though, cos when u do see them attack, its among the best in th comp with the talent they do have, but their one track defnesive mind has time and time again negated that positive line of thinking, a real shame,e specially if ur a stormers fan.

To have that amount of injuries and still come away with a positive win is very impressive, some aspect of Stomers general play really did improve, well done to the coach and team. Jantjies had a good performance again hence why hes the first choice flyhalf now. No other flyhalf at this stage is being so creatively elusive in attack in SA and i believe he can shine in the boks if he continues to play like he is now. De Allende brilliant at times, he should remain in the starting lineup. What a impact he could've make at the start of the Super 15 damn, why Coetzee? Liebenberg was also good enough to be one of the stand out players that contributed with character. The Stormers should be higher on the log at this point. After Stomers did beat the top quality teams like Chiefs and Brumbies at newlands home Stormers was certainly a threat, hence the reason why there was poor reffing in all of Stormers away games. Stormers management executives should definitley consider to get they're money back from the finned incident because that player was most probably speaking the obvious truth and they don't like it. Those who disagree is not going to change my perspective and i don't care.

Add to the list Burger, Malherbe, Rhodes and Carstens. Tiaan has just come back and his absence has been a huge loss. I also heard that the promising young lock ex the Lions Riaan Botha is injured and hence we have not seen him. Scurra also got injured and is currently out.

That's 17 names and I have possibly forgotten someone.

Dont talk rubbish saSUE - there is a good kiwi bird brain! The effect of these injuries has been huge.

 However I do agree re the attacking aspect and some poor selections.

Fair comment by Lucid as usual.

  it was the refs fault and only the refs fault,,, :o(

no wonder WP have the cape crusaders, who want to be known as a stormers fan??? o_O,
theyre like kids in the supermarket or malls who just act like little brats and give their mum a hard time, LMFAO, :oD