Stick with what works

Sometimes it is difficult to fathom what will really satisfy the Cape sporting public.

Reading through some of the newspaper letters and SMS columns since last weekend’s big win over the Highlanders, you might almost be forgiven for thinking the Stormers are languishing near the bottom of the Super 14 table.

With three wins in four starts, and a current third position on the log, the opposite is actually true. And yet you get the impression there are people who are expecting a lot more. It is fine having great expectations, but what are those expectations based upon?

Since this time last year, when the Stormers were really struggling and were on their way to a 10th place finish, there have been two big name acquisitions in the form of Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana. That though really is about it, and the bulk of the squad is the same one that played last year.

So an expectation that the Stormers should somehow be doing better than they are now may be misplaced. If last March the Stormers had been offered their current position on the 2010 log table, and the wins they have scored, they would have been happy to buy it.

The problem appears to revolve around the style of rugby the Stormers are employing to win their games, and it is why Stormers coach Allister Coetzee seems to spend so much time apologising when he shouldn’t be at press conferences.

It would be wonderful if the Stormers could sweep all opposition aside with the all-engaging wide running game that the Western Province team of the 1980s employed to win five successive Currie Cup titles.

But the game has changed since those days, with defences becoming more dominant. To this end, the Stormers have made a massive step forward, and it is quite startling to hear knowledgeable people criticising the Stormers for not scoring enough tries while at the same time not giving any credit to the defence.

Two tries conceded in four matches, and one of those an intercept try, is a phenomenal record, particularly at this time when supposedly the laws lean towards the attacking team and greater try scoring feats. And it is not as if the Stormers haven’t scored any tries – they have scored nine in four matches, which is more than two a game.

If they kept that record up for the rest of the season, they would not only make the semifinals, they would surely qualify for home ground advantage in that play-off game.

The Stormers have admitted they need to work at aspects of their attacking game, and in the first half against the Highlanders they were not patient enough, a malady which cost them against the Brumbies the previous week.

What confounds me, however, is that they do not make even greater use of one of their most productive try scoring weapons, which is the driving maul. The 25 metre effort scored against the Highlanders does make you wonder whether the Stormers shouldn’t focus more on what is fast becoming their greatest strength.

The point though is that in modern sport, it is surely the winning of the game that matters more than anything else. At this time in 2009 the Stormers were guilty of playing too much rugby in the wrong areas of the field, and it set them back in the early stages of the competition. In my view, it was what the Sharks were getting wrong this season before the Sydney game, where they were unlucky.

Territory still remains a massive aspect of the modern game, and it was because they lost the territorial battle against the outstanding Brumbies tactical kickers that they lost that match. What the Stormers have been working hard on since last year though is establishing when it is on to keep ball in hand and when it is on to kick.

Even though they haven't always chosen the best tactical kicking combinations, the Stormers appear to be getting it right, and yet there seem to be some who still aren’t happy on the basis that while they are winning their games, they are not winning them with style.

The Stormers and their coaches must be careful of not paying too much attention to this negative lobby as they could then risk making the same mistake that the Waratahs did last year when they bowed to pressure from the Sydney media and changed a game that was working for them in the early stages of the competition.

The Waratahs were near the top of the log early in the competition, but the newspapers described it as “winning ugly”. So they morphed to a more open style, and they promptly fell out of the top four and out of contention.

As the Springboks showed by convincingly winning last year’s Tri-Nations with a much criticised playing style, there is much merit in sticking with has been shown to work.