It is necessary to deal with the Stormers performances thus far in Super 15 and see what went wrong in the campaign this year.
Bulls
This game was lost because of an atrocious goal kicking performance by Jantjies - he missed every kick at goal and missed for times out of four. There wer other slight weaknesses in the team. The forwards play was sound - but the backline was disfunctional - the problem being in fact again atrributed to Jantjies.
All oppnents have identified Jantjies as a poor defender and they all attacked through the channel. Jantjies did not disappoint them - he made 7 tackles and missed 2. Wven in making the seven tackles he did not make good tackles and other players had to asassist in the completion of the tackles.
He was severely criticized and Coetzee defended him strongly and insisted he was going to retain him in the game against the Sharks the following game - because he has to rebuild his confidence and for that reason would include Pretorius in the team so he can take over the goalkicking duties.
Sharks
Another defeat and the reason can also be attributed to a disfunctional backline. However, the Sharks backline was equally disfunctional. In both cases the cause could be brought down to two individual players - Jantjies in th case of the Sharks and Francois Steyn in the case of the Sharks. Coming back to the Stormers - the key was poor decisionmaking on flyhalf level and the fact that the Stormers had to cver defence - since Jantjies was a sieve. The number of penalties was a nightmare - mainly as a result of defensive problems encountered by the Stormers.
Jantjies was slightly better than he was in the game against the Bulls. There were some reasons for that - he was still not entrusted with the goalkicking duties and was sapred the embarrassment of missing kicks at goal. Also the Stormers tried to protect him in the field of defence - thus he made on three tackles - but he missed 1. Jantjies made one good decision and then his brain went AWOL. For the rest o the game his decisionmaking was poor and useless. The backline from an attacking perspective was a dead loss.
Chiefs
The performance was better - but the Chiefs exploited some real deficiencies in defence. They attacked in the channel and when successful send the ball wide. This time around Jantjies again made 3 tackles - missed one and gave away a penalty. On the positive side he made a good pass that did contribute to a Stormers try. The Stormers won - because they amnaged to control line - out play. On the whole the Stormers had a good game and Jantjies did show some spark - but later went back to poor decisionmaking and the Stormers was in reverse gear in the second half of the game as a result.
Brumbies
This was the best performance this year by the Stormers and ther were signs that the team performance improved. However, the weak spot this time was at 13 - where De Jongh in his first game this year was AWOL when Speight scored his try. On the whole an all - round better performance.
Crusaders
This was a real disaster. The Crusaders disrupted the Stormers line-outs and Jantjies was a rank disaster - followed closely by De Jongh. The Channel became a highway for attacks by the Crusaders and here they beat the Stormers hollow. Jantjies was pathetic - noocking on balls, giving away penalties and an ill judged releiving kicks charged down by the Crusaders. The Jantjies flops opend the way for the Crusaders to start on the come-back trail. De Jongh was equally pathetic and all potential Strormers attacks were nullified. When both was replaced - the game changed and the Stormers were on the attack for the last ten minutes of the game. The Crusaders desperate defence kept tham out.
SUMMARY
The stormers are not going anywhere fast this year and they are destined to be somewhere around 10 on the log this year - maybe even lower
In the final analysis - the problems basically lies in the backline - where obvious changes will be made - but will they be made by Coetzee - my guess is not - he will persist with players like Jantjies and De Jongh. That is where the main problems lie with the Stormers. So the Stormers are destind to head to oblivion in teh competition this year.
