Stormer's Attacking Woes

After three rounds of rugby, the Stormers find themselves in the middle of the table with two wins and a loss. Their season could go either way, and if it's to be a favourable outcome, they'll need to rectify their paltry attacking game. After three rounds, they've scored two tries, comfortably bottom of the table. Looking through my notes and some stats, I see many similarities to the Boks of last year. They concentrate their game on direct running from the forwards, inside centre and fullback. In fact, their possession stats for 12 and 15 are markedly higher than the other four South African sides. Their wings are not getting as much ball. The two best attacking sides - Bulls and Sharks - run more possession through their 13s. The Bulls have a more balanced spread amongst their backs, whilst the Sharks have opted to put an emphasis on 13. The result is that they are bringing more players into the game. Aside from Willemse, their key carriers are not distributing the ball. In fact, of the Stormers forwards, all but one is over 75% for runs over the pass. Damian is getting the ball away 30.6% of the time, and the bulk of those passes are well in front of the defence in longer chains getting the ball wide without fixing any defenders. The Stormers rank 8th in the league for defenders beaten, but 15th for clean breaks. This would suggest that all this blunt running can lead to, on average, one broken tackle per carry, but they are not getting runners through the first line of defence. On the rare occasion that they do, they are not sustaining attacks with offloads or deft passes. Clearly they have a powerful attack, and solid defence, but this is surely not going to be sustainable. 

I think there are lessons here for Rassie, and a warning for the World Cup later this year.