Ex Supersport
You need look no further than the Newlands trophy cabinet to establish that 2013 was a step backwards for the Cape’s premier rugby team.
In both guises, as the DHL Stormers in Vodacom Super Rugby, and as DHL Western Province in the Absa Currie Cup, they had to relinquish trophies won last year.
Given that the domestic season was in many ways the converse of 2012, with Province dominating the competition but losing the final, the failure in Super Rugby was the more noteworthy, particularly as the Stormers had begun the southern hemisphere regional tournament with so much hope.
As winners of the South African Conference Trophy for two consecutive seasons, Currie Cup champions and Super Rugby log-winners from the previous year, the Stormers started their campaign heavily favoured.
But while most critics predicted the race for local honours to be between the two coastal franchises, the Stormers and the Sharks, it didn’t start out that way.
The Stormers sustained a big blow to their hopes just before the season kicked off when the Herculean form of Eben Etzebeth was ruled out with a foot injury, and coach Allister Coetzee won’t be comforted by the thought that he is set for a replay this year.
Etzebeth was injured playing for the Springboks against France and won’t be in action for the first half of the 2014 round robin phase.
There were further complications, such as the tragedy that befell new flyhalf acquisition Elton Jantjies, on loan from the Lions, when his father died unexpectedly a few weeks before the Super Rugby start.
That prevented Jantjies from playing any part in the pre-season build-up, and his lack of preparedness was one of several stress points in an abjectly poor start against the Bulls at Loftus.
Coetzee had also determined before the season that he wanted to approach the competition differently to previous years.
Whereas in the past the Stormers threw a lot into their pre-season preparations and approached warm-up games with fair intensity, this time around the build-up was low key. And it showed on that opening night of the campaign, with Jean de Villiers’s men just looking short of a gallop.
De Villiers led the side in the absence of Schalk Burger, who was chosen as the captain for the year in the pre-season but failed to make it onto the field due to a combination of factors.
After missing the entire 2012 season through a knee injury, Burger was forced to sit out nearly the whole of 2013 as well, only making a belated return to the WP side towards the end of their Currie Cup campaign.
When Siya Kolisi and Duane Vermeulen were fit the absence of Burger wasn’t that keenly felt, but during the course of the season the Stormers encountered a crippling injury epidemic.
That, coupled with the slow start, when they were beaten by both the Bulls and Sharks in the two opening matches when they looked decidedly underdone, was their undoing.
Back in February it did appear as though the Stormers weren’t quite sure what game they should be playing. There had been a perception that they had been more attacking in winning the Currie Cup the previous year, though that really was a misperception if you consider they only won that title through one 80 minute performance based around defence.
So for a while they looked like they were trying to abandoning the defence orientated template that had seen them into the semifinals for three successive years.
The recruitment of Jantjies helped fuel this perception. Capped as a Springbok the previous October, Jantjies is a talented player, but in his time with the Stormers it looked as though he was a round tent peg trying to fit into a square hole.
It was injuries though more than the prevarications over game-plan that really tripped up the Stormers, with star players such as Peter Grant, Burger, Duane Vermeulen, Andries Bekker, Tiaan Liebenberg, Kolisi, Jaco Taute and of course Etzebeth, in addition to others, all missing either all or part of the campaign.
Etzebeth in particular is a massive influence on the Stormers when he does play, and it was no coincidence that the Boks started a five-game winning sequence with which they finished off the season upon his return to action.
It was good enough only to climb the Stormers up to seventh position on the final log, in other words out of the playoff bracket, but it did give WP confidence with which to start the domestic season.
UNBEATEN RUN
Considering they had a much more settled team, the opening draw with the Vodacom Blue Bulls at Newlands was disappointing, and you might well argue that Province never really fully hit their straps in any game.
However, it is hard to argue against an unbeaten run through an entire league season, something that had not happened since 1996, and that was what WP managed.
During the course of their campaign they unearthed a real gem in Cheslin Kolbe, though it hard to see how the Stormers will be able to accommodate both the new sensation and Gio Aplon in the same back three going forward.
The diminutive aspect of the Province back three was certainly shown up in the final, when they lost to the Sharks in a game most expected the Cape side to win.
In that sense it was a complete reversal of 12 months earlier, when WP shocked all and sundry when an under-strength side beat a star-studded Sharks side in Durban.
There were aspects of the WP tactical game that are going to have to be looked at closely before they transform back into the Stormers for the start of the new Super Rugby season.
However, overall, even though there wasn’t a trophy to show for it this time, the WP Currie Cup season was an improvement on 2012 if you look at it in terms of matches won and lost.
Whereas the previous season they won only five of their 10 league games, and actually only finished in third place on the final log, this season they only lost the final.
And if you factor in the last five Super Rugby games, the Stormers/WP went from May through to late October without losing, which does suggest there is potential there and that the team may still be on the rise even though the trophy cabinet doesn’t reflect it.
For most Cape rugby followers though it is going to be hard to erase the unhappy memory of how and where the season ended, and there will remain a question mark over the Stormers/WP's ability to hold their nerve in a big home playoff game until such time as they do get over the line in one of those games.
STORMERS/WP SEASON IN A NUTSHELL
Super Rugby: Finished seventh on final log (previous year 1st).
Currie Cup: Lost final to Sharks at Newlands, but 1st on log (previous year champions but third on log)
Man of the Super Rugby season: Jean de Villiers.
Man of the Currie Cup season: Deon Fourie. (PLEASE NOTE)
Most Valuable Player all-round: Duane Vermeulen.
Quo Vadis: Andries Bekker is heading for Japan and will be missed.
Most exciting new find: Cheslin Kolbe.
Most promising young player: Frans Malherbe.
Most improved player: Damian de Allende.
Most missed players: Schalk Burger and Peter Grant were both conspicuous by their absence in Super Rugby and sorely missed.
Best game: The win over Jake White’s Brumbies at Newlands.
Worst game: The opening loss to the Bulls in Super Rugby ties with the defeat to the Rebels in Melbourne.
Most difficult opponent: The incompetent TMOs and assistant referees they encountered in Australasia, plus the equally poor Ssnzar administrators who carried through a bizarre disciplinary case that, if you dug into it, had very little merit and served only to accentuate the pressure on the team during their overseas tour.(WELL SAID SAME HAPPENED TO THE SHARKS AS WELL. BENT DOWN UNDER REFS SHAFTED US!!!!!!!!!!! - NOTHING NEW OF COURSE)
