Something for organisers to look at

The elation in the Stormers camp was tangible when they edged into the Super 12 semifinals by beating the Sharks, but it would have been tempered for many South African fans by the massive disadvantage they face courtesy of a debilitating travel schedule.

Flying home from New Zealand one Sunday, then flying up to Durban for an important game before getting onto the plane the following Sunday and retracing your steps in the opposite direction to the other side of the world, is not the optimum preparation for a team readying itself for their most important game of the season.

Had it been the Bulls advancing to an away semifinal, it would have been a similar story for them, as they also only flew home from New Zealand a week before they would have been scheduled to fly out for an away semi.

There is a lot of positive talk coming from the Stormers out of New Zealand. Hooker Pieter Dixon says adrenalin will carry the team through the second half, while skipper Selborne Boome said after the ABSA Stadium game that the fact his team have returned home in the interim will break the monotony that had impacted on the side in their last tour game against the Crusaders less than two weeks ago.

But of course the Stormers have to be positive. If they went into the game telling everyone that they were at a disadvantage and were going to be well beaten, that would be laughable.

The reality is that last Saturday's game in Durban showed just how big an impact jetlag has. The Stormers looked well in control in the quarter hour after halftime, but Boome said he had seen the fatigue reflected in his teammates faces at the break.

This showed the way the Stormers took the foot off the accelerator as soon as they had got the Werner Greeff try which put them 14 points ahead and lulled them into thinking they were safe. They were out on their feet at the end and it was remarkable that they managed to dig deep for that last attack which brought Schalk Burger the match clinching try.

If it was that bad in Durban after just one flight across the time-zones, what impact is the return trip going to have, particularly when you consider that the flight from west to east is supposed to be much tougher?

There are many who say, and with some justification, that when you fail to nail down a top two spot on the log, which would have booked a home semi, then you have to live with disadvantage.

But the away team already has an enough of a disadvantage just by having to play on the opposition side's home field. Adding a return inter-continental flight to that disadvantage just makes it ridiculous.

Teams have won away semifinals after an inter-continental flight before. The Highlanders did it when they flew to Cape Town in 1999, but they had not just completed an away tour to South Africa a few weeks earlier.

The issue here is the closeness of the Stormers flights. Flying out to play an away semi a week before the game takes place is not something we should have a problem with. The fact that the Super 12 schedule left them having to do the trip twice in the space of seven days is.

So, in the spirit of offering a solution to a problem rather than just being a cynical critic with all moans and no answers, let me suggest the following. In future the organisers should ensure as far as possible that all the teams finish off with at least two derby games (having all the derby games in a row might not be a bad idea), thus ensuring that all teams will be in their own countries for the last two or three weeks of the tournament.

That would be enough time to recover from any away leg, and would ensure that if they do advance to an away semifinal, the extra fatigue which comes with jetlag will be kept to a minimum. In that way the organisers will be ensuring that the semifinal will be a more meaningful contest, which is what the showpiece stage of the competition deserves.