Inclusivity the Pumas’ secret ingredient to winning SRC rugby

By putting together a SuperSport Rugby Challenge winning streak of 18 games over the last two years (11 en route to winning last year's title and seven from this year's group stages), the Pumas are emerging as the competition's new juggernaut. We asked their coach Jimmy Stonehouse how they do it.

To what do you attribute your team finishing the group stages unbeaten this year?

Last year I used a structure where everybody in the group played. We've got 36 players, and everybody played in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge last year, and everyone plays this year. There's no use having a group in which only certain players play. That makes the team spirit and the environment special because everybody knows they'll get a chance to play, that they're not just bag holders. I insisted on that last year, and I've insisted on it this year, and I think that's the main reason, apart from preparing and analysis and all that stuff.

How satisfied are you that you got a full house of points from your seven games?

We don't look at it as a special thing because we work on the basis of week by week, and when you get five points in all your games it is great. But that log position means nothing in the semifinals...

What's your take on an unbeaten record, does it come with its own pressure or does it give the players confidence?

I believe your players have to be of the mindset that if they suffer setbacks they have to come back as quickly as possible. If they lose a game, or if somebody scores early against them, they have to come back as quickly as possible. Being in a position where you haven't lost a game also creates an environment where people believe they're going to win and also understand there's a little bit of a threat to that. But you keep changing players, and you give everyone a chance. The players aren't always thinking they belong there or they have to keep the streak going. So because of the changes I think it's difficult to fall into that loop of thinking 'we're good, we can't lose'.

With last year's unbeaten run, the Pumas haven't lost a game in 18 matches, does that put pressure on you as the hunted?

We spoke about it yesterday in our team meeting, but I don't think it's there to put pressure on you. The fact that it's the semifinals means we have to win the game and there are no longer chances to lose. Whatever record you broke in the past, or wanting to win 20, doesn't count because this game against Boland is do or die, and the focus is on how are we going to achieve that.

Boland are probably a surprise semifinalist for you guys to come up against, how do you approach that?

We made a prediction about two, three, weeks ago that Boland is the team that can go through. People look at the name Boland and think they won't go through to the knockout stages. But you must remember that the big unions like WP and all those guys their teams change every week where Boland play together, stay together and have good quality players.

If you look at the way they play, they've got a good pack of forwards, they maul well, they scrum well and have good quality runners from the back that can score from anywhere. The two scrumhalves are brilliant and their finishers on the wings are great.

So it's not a team that's lucky to be there, if you look at how they got there they played quality rugby. They play what they see in front of them, and what the difference is for me is their execution in the set pieces – they do really well there. If you look at the log standings a lot of people said the Cheetahs would be there, but we knew from the start.