Mighty Stormers embark on the tour from hell

Yes and without the worlds best lock available either. Now you tell me how desparate are the down under oaks trying to keep the Mighty Stormers down!!

Ex Super Sport

It has been described as the tour from hell and also as Mission Impossible, but the toughness of the four match trip that the DHL Stormers embarked upon with their departure from Cape Town on Sunday could just work for them.(IE oaks this diabolical plan might just backfire!!)

The 19-18 win over the Hurricanes at Newlands this past Friday wasn’t enough to turn around the negativity that swamped Cape rugby after the shock defeat to the Lions in the opening game the week before, and which has arguably been around since the Currie Cup final last October.

It was a stuttering, bumbling display from a team that looked like it wasn’t quite sure what game it should be playing, and far from being the rousing response that the Stormers were hoping for, they were lucky to win against a Hurricanes team that itself is no great shakes. (NOT IF MY GOO FRIEND OU BRYCY IS TO BE BELEIVED!!)

However, the Stormers have been in a situation before where they have started the season with criticism raining on them, and have then turned it around by winning a game they weren’t expected to (uNLIKE THE BLUE CLAVES THE mIGHTY sTORMERS TAKE ON THE CHALLEMGE OF TOURING WITH GUSTO!!!). 

The occasion in question was in the 2011 season, when a couple of narrow scrapes at home left Newlands underwhelmed, only for a comprehensive win over the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus, the first time a victory had been scored at that venue in ages, to change the sentiment.

On Friday they play a Crusaders team that may have been rendered vulnerable by the injury that has ruled Richie McCaw out of rugby for eight weeks  (STRENGTHENS THE WEE CRUSTIES IN MY VIEW), but which nonetheless will start as overwhelming favourites given the poor record of South African teams in Christchurch.

Although a tough assignment for his team, Stormers skipper Jean de Villiers seems to think it may work for his men, and he may be right in hinting that being cast into the role of underdogs could be just what his side need. In both matches they have played so far the Stormers started as favourites.

“Look, going to Christchurch to play against the Crusaders is really tough, as you can note by the fact that no South African team has won there in ages,” said De Villiers after the Hurricanes game.(YES TE REFS ONE ENCOUNTERS DOWN UNDER ARE AS BENT AS THEY COME!!! JEAN OF COURSE CANT SAY THAT)

“But that also means it is a great challenge for us. If we win there we would have achieved something special.”

Indeed, and there could be no better way for the Stormers to turn around their season. It will be a massive ask, but both De Villiers and coach Allister Coetzee think the lateness of the converted try that won the match against the Hurricanes may be a good sign and work for them.

“I see things and glimpses of three or four years ago where we scraped out wins, we started winning narrowly and then we started to get confidence and momentum from that,” said Coetzee.

The coach was in fact referring to 2011, the year of that Bulls victory, but he could also have been referring to 2012, when the Stormers topped the log.

What he neglected to say though is that the Stormers appear to have lost their unwavering faith and clarity in the game-plan that saw them to the play-offs in those seasons. On Friday night’s evidence, with the team at times looking as if they thought they were on Camps Bay beach playing touch rugby, they may have bowed to media and public pressure by moving too far away from the template that made them challengers.

That is what separates this team from the 2012 one that travelled from Cape Town straight after a bruising derby against the Bulls and beat a strong Highlanders team in Dunedin in the deep south of New Zealand seven days later. The Stormers players don’t all look like they are on the same page, and whatever the intention is with their game-plan, they need to start looking more coherent and together than they did against the Hurricanes or the Crusaders will thump them.

Perhaps, as De Villiers says, the win will bring the confidence that was missing in Cape Town three days ago, and everything will slot into place.

“This one point win was huge for us, it doesn’t matter how we got it,” said De Villiers.

It may not matter how they got it, but if they are to beat Crusaders they do need to know how they are going to go about doing it. This past Friday there wasn’t too much evidence of that so it is a tall order that awaits the Stormers over the next four weeks.

 3Ku1

Dear friend - this is the type of hogwash to expect from Beeno.   The Stormers was poor in both games played - very, very poor - but Beeno will write praising love songs about them like it is unbelievable.  

If there are two teams who was poor this far in the competition it is the Crusaders and the Stormers.   They are up against each other this weekend - so we will see what they produce.   I expect the Crusaders to win at home  if they produce a half-decent performance this coming weekend.  

Both teams have had ball handling problems thus far and both has been totally unconvincing  in most departments of the game.  With tongue in cheek - I am saying that the Crusaders should not select McCaw ahead of Todd - the latter was outstanding against the Stormers last year.         

Sun Tzu

There were really three weak links in the Stormers defence, namely -

*   De Villiers   -   2 missed tackles;

*   De Allende  -   2 missed tackles;

*   Catrakills    -   2 missed tackles; and

*   Schteuder   -   1 missed tackle

It is a problem when centers missed tackles and especially De Villiers were poor on Saturday.   The misses of De Allende can be attributed to the very high number of tackles he made and his missed tackle ratio was consequently low and at an acceptable level.

I would not attribute it at all to a drop in defensive standards as compared to last year.   De Jongh routinely missed between 2 and 3 missed tackles a game. He played in 8 games missing 20 tackles so you can work it out for yourself.   Jantjies and Van Aswegen was atrocious defence wise.   Pietersen at full back also had a high missed tackle ratio.   So there is no chance that the defence deteriorated.  Bar De Villiers, it looked slightly better than it was last year      

Sun Tzu 

If you actually include the defensive sieve in evidence last year between De Jongh, Aplon and Pietersen last year as being on the downside - I agree with you about the defence issue.    If you refer to a deterioration since last year - you are in fact talking crap.

Last year was the bottom of the pile insofar as defence was concerned - it showed some signs of improvement on Saturday insofar as the wings, and the full back is concerned and I think it would have been better - but for De Villiers having had a bad say at the office. 

Du plication

Sun Tzu

A sound defensive system is wonderful - but it still depends on the defenders making their tackles.   I do not think there is much wrong with the defensive system as a whole other than the opposing teams finding some counter-measures.

What is basically wrong is that some players do not meet their obligations in implementation and that weakens the system.   The center with the worst record in defence last year was De Jongh and no system can overcome  serious defence deficiencies of individual players.

If the players do not meet the requirements - bi system will work and last year it did not work properly not because the system us at fault or becoming ineffective - or that the opposing  teams cope better with it - but because the defence deficiencies of individual players made it ineffective. 

Comprehende?  

Duplic ation