Corne is being sorely missed

When the Blues recovered from a 24-0 deficit to eventually win with something to spare against the Stormers at Newlands at the weekend, it was not the first time such a dramatic turn-about had been witnessed at the historic stadium.

In fact, you only needed to go back some 14 months. In late February last year, the Highlanders held a similarly emphatic lead over the Stormers. Only on that occasion it was the Stormers who dug deep, retained their composure and came back to win fairly comfortably.

Around nine months earlier the Stormers launched a similar great escape, this time in Sydney. If my memory serves me correctly, the Stormers were behind 24-3 heading towards halftime in a match against the rampant Waratahs. Everyone watching would have thought it would end in a rout.

However it didn’t turn out that way. Instead it was the Stormers who turned it around with a display of guts, tenacity and composure under pressure that was almost unbelievable. I use the word unbelievable because the second half fightback, which eventually resulted in a 10 point win for the Stormers, came at a time when the visiting team had been severely depleted.

You may remember the game – Neil de Kock was forced to play wing and helped to turn the match on its head with a brilliant run which had some commentators suggesting that maybe the then Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli should look at him as a wing.

There was a common denominator in both of these games. It was Corne Krige. He had his detractors, and on a few occasions in his career, such as at Twickenham in 2002 and again against the Chiefs in Roturua last year, he let himself down badly by giving his critics bullets to fire at him.

But when it came to having a talisman present who could provide inspirational leadership and keep heads around him calm when it was necessary, then Krige was hard to beat. And no-one who played under him at Stormers level would disagree with that assessment.

I well remember Selborne Boome telling me, with great respect in his voice, about how Krige had just refused to panic when his team fell behind in the aforementioned match against the Highlanders. He told the players they must just continue along the same road they had been following and the game would turn. He was convinced of it, and he was proved right.

The reason I dredge up Krige’s name almost exactly a year to the day that he made his ignominious exit from the competition is because it is becoming obvious that the current Stormers’ crisis has much to do with the huge void left by Krige at leadership level.

If there was one thing that distinguished the Blues from the Stormers in their match at the weekend it was composure. Once the Blues started coming back, you could almost see the Stormers start to panic. This was one of the reasons they suddenly started making mistakes that appeared beyond them in that sublime opening 20 minutes when they scored 24 points.

De Wet Barry, the captain on the day, admitted as much afterwards. He said he was disappointed at his team’s lack of composure. And he also stated the same thing, which was obvious to anyone who saw the game, a week earlier when the Stormers fell apart in the second half against the Crusaders.

In both matches against the two excellent New Zealand teams the Stormers lost it in the second half. In both there was more than just a little element of panic in the Stormers’ play. Now I won’t say that never happened under Krige, for I well remember the disaster against the Reds at Newlands in 2003 (or am I right in suggesting Krige was injured during the game and never finished it?), but it happened a lot less frequently.

Neither am I suggesting that the Stormers should bring Krige back. Time passes, people retire, new eras have to begin. Now is the right time for the Stormers to start getting used to life without Krige.

That is why this article is not titled “Bring back Corne”. It is however an acknowledgement that captaincy does matter, and may be one of the reasons that Gert Smal appears to be less of a coach now than he was 12 months ago. Neither is it necessarily just a coincidence that Smal’s previous worst run as coach of the Stormers in 2003 happened to come at the same time that Krige was absent through injury.

Smal’s biggest mistake in 2005 might well have been his decision to share the Stormers captaincy between Neil de Kock, De Wet Barry and Joe van Niekerk. History shows that the side has done best when one recognisable, inspirational and charismatic leader has been at the helm.

The Stormers have made the Super 12 semi-finals twice, with 1999 being remembered as the year of Bob Skinstad (before his injury) and in 2004 it was Krige (before his suspension) who led by example.

The Stormers and WP need as a matter of urgency to identify a leader who may bring some of the Krige/Skinstad qualities to the job. To my mind there are three candidates, and unsurprisingly all three of them are loose-forwards – Luke Watson, Schalk Burger and Joe van Niekerk.

As he is unlikely to be involved with the Springboks, at least not just yet, maybe WP should give Watson a try during the Currie Cup season.