Alas lady luck has been against the Mighty Stormers so their many, many fans obviously hope for a change in fortunes.
Beating the Rebels will not be easy considering how they faded against the Reds in Brisbane last week, but Feeney reckons it is attainable. He just believes the team needs to improve execution and discipline and, perhaps most importantly, have the benefit of some luck. The Stormers have been over the line at crucial stages of their last two tour games only to be denied by millimetres. Feeney reckons had they scored then, the outcomes of the games against the Blues and the Reds would probably have been very different.(Hoor hoor!!!!!!!!!)
“Once again this past game (against the Reds) was very frustrating and the guys were frustrated they didn’t get any points. It was again small margins, and there is a bit of execution that definitely needs to get better,” said the Kiwi.
“But it would be nice to get the rub of the green for once. That is what we need. There have been a few occasions where just a touch of whitewash has denied us. Sometimes you need a bit of that luck, and it hasn’t been going our way. I wouldn’t say we have lost belief or confidence because of those narrow calls, but if you do get those points, and start to grow a lead, the other team has to chase the game.
“If we’d got one or both of those two tries that were disallowed in Brisbane it would have forced the Reds to change the game. Instead we had a bit of luck going against us when Siya (Kolisi) was yellow carded and the Reds scored twice while he was off.”
Feeney is right in the sense that although they have had periods where they have played very good rugby, they have yet to take a proper lead in any of the tour games. And yet had three disallowed tries - the Josh Stander score against the Blues which was initially awarded and then cancelled because of a forward pass at the start of the movement, and the Damian Willemse and Sergeal Petersen touches of the whitewash in Brisbane - been allowed to stand, they would have gone into a lead in those games.
All three tries were rightly disallowed, and in the case of the forward pass, that is an example of the poor execution that Feeney refers to as a stumbling block. But with the others it was a question of millimetres and in both instances the referee’s onfield call was a try. A milimetre the other way and the outcome could have been very different.
The Stormers played with a lot of buzz and energy in the first 25 minutes against the Reds but then appeared to go flat after the tries were disallowed and they appeared to lose confidence. The Stormers will be without almost their entire leadership group in Melbourne, with several leaders among the seven players who have returned home, but Feeney firmly believes the team’s luck can still change in Melbourne.
“There is no reason we can’t beat the Rebels, and if we do we will be four from eight, which won’t be a bad platform given that we are playing six of the remaining eight at Newlands and we will have players coming back,” said Feeney.
The players coming back should indeed make a difference. There are no long term injuries for the Stormers to deal with, and in the weeks immediately after the tour they should be welcoming back Eben Etzebeth, JD Schickerling, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Kolisi, Jano Vermaak and others.
