What the Stormers management might ask themselves is do they want to win this or not. They could start by comparing Bongi with Marx and reflect on the shortfall. etc etc.
Best just phone Beeno for assistance!Ex Supersport
The DHL Stormers had good reason to celebrate their 57-31 win over the Rebels in Melbourne at the weekend for it featured a few records and also effectively clinched top spot in Africa Conference 1, but coach Robbie Fleck was right not to get carried away by the performance.
"I don't think we are peaking just yet," said Fleck after the seven try to four triumph.
With an away match against the Western Force and a home game against the Southern Kings to come, and the Vodacom Bulls now nine log points behind them, the Stormers can start thinking about their Vodacom Super Rugby play-off qualifying game on the weekend of 22/23 July. It will almost certainly be against a New Zealand team, probably one of the Highlanders or Hurricanes, but the Crusaders or Chiefs are also possible opponents from a tightly contested New Zealand conference.
The Stormers haven’t played a New Zealand side yet this year so it will be new territory for them, and Fleck has consistently spoken during the course of the season about what a lift that might require from his team. And he will know that although the margin of victory against the Rebels was a big one in the end, his team blew hot and cold at times and relied on a dominance at forward that could be difficult to repeat against stronger opposition.
Young flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis has grabbed the headlines in the Cape since the Melbourne game, and he did produce a fine performance that was capped by him notching 27 points on his own. But it was the pack that set up the win by annihilating the Rebels in the scrums and cleaning them up in the lineouts.
In fact, Du Plessis’ performance in a way mirrored that of his team. While he did many brilliant things, there are still errors in his game that could prove fatal to the Stormers’ chances of winning a tightly contested play-off game. The errors referred to are unforced ones, such as making a hash of restarts, which he did at least twice in Melbourne.
Judging from what he said on the audio feed sent back after the Melbourne game, Fleck recognises both the potential and the flaws in the Du Plessis make-up.
“He is a special kid, he is an X-factor player. He tends to blow hot and cold, but when he is on song, he is really good,” said Fleck.
"We are developing him as we go along. There are a few errors in his game, but when he does keep it simple he is a really effective flyhalf for us."
The coach will need mostly hot and no cold in a play-off game against a team like the Hurricanes or Crusaders, and the same goes for the other troubling aspect of the Stormers game after the win over the Rebels – the defence.
The Stormers defence was praised for the way it scrambled at times when the Rebels were pressing, yet four tries were conceded and some of them were scored too easily. It is not the first time this season where some great defence was mixed with bad, and a good example will be their Easter Saturday win over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires, where they missed too many first time tackles and let the Jaguares back into the game before their defence improved and effectively won it for them late in the game.
The Cape side made heavy weather of putting the Rebels away if you consider how dominant they were at forward, where they were admittedly helped by the injuries that robbed the hosts of their two first choice locks for much of the game. It was only once a yellow card reduced the Rebels to 14 men that the Stormers eased ahead. The scores were locked at 31-all when the yellow card came.
However, the Rebels did look out on their feet towards the end, a bit reminiscent of Ireland late in the second test against the Springboks in Johannesburg, and that would have been the product of the slow poison of the Stormers scrum and the irrepressible, strong driving of the Stormers big men.
Bok lock Eben Etzebeth was excellent throughout the game but the period immediately after the Rebels started getting under his skin and there was an altercation where he started flashing angry eyes at the opposition saw a further lift in his effort levels. It was the second row forward who appeared to galvanise his team for the final push that saw them clinch a crucial try scoring bonus point to go with the win.
It was also the driving of the Stormers forwards that forced the advantage in numbers as the Rebels found themselves unable to halt the drive by legal means and a card was inevitable.
Perhaps the most encouraging feature of the Stormers win was that they appeared to have learned the lesson from their last trip overseas. Against the Sunwolves in Singapore the Stormers floundered because they played into the Japanese teams hands with their wide game that neglected their superiority at forward.
Against the Rebels the Stormers started off with good attacking shape at the back but once they were behind 14-6 following two tries from the hosts they quickly recognised where the path to victory lay and revolved their quest around a forward based approach. It is undeniably in the pack that the strength of the Stormers lies as they head towards the play-offs.
