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Lions 'still No 1' but Stormers retain belief
The Cape side, severely chastened by the unexpected big 37 point margin of their defeat in Pretoria, face the Emirates Lions at Newlands in their second game and the failure to pitch at Loftus has added to the pressure for a positive result.
While the usual doom merchants and shock jocks were predictably out in force post the Pretoria annihilation, and the Stormers camp shouldn’t blame them for they were abjectly poor against their arch-rivals, a more sober and realistic view should be to wait and see how the Stormers respond to the pressure before singing the epitaph to the 2019 season.
To justify the sack-cloth and acerbic criticism, there was the Groundhog Day effect of that perennially faltering lineout. When are they ever going to get that important part of the game right? But other than that, the Loftus result wasn’t in kilter with the pre-season build-up. Had the Stormers lost badly on Super Hero Sunday and then lost badly again, then the funereal mood would be justified. As it stands, the Loftus result was just the first game of the season, and while the first game can set the tone, the reality is that a win against the Lions will swing the mood in the other direction.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
That won’t be easy, but Stormers fullback Dillyn Leyds agrees that there is no better opportunity to put the record straight than a match against a team that he still sees as the best in South Africa.
“The Lions have been the top team for the last couple of years, and to my mind they are still the No 1 team in the country, even though they have lost a couple of big names since last year,” said Leyds.
“They still have class players. They have a backline that is phenomenal. Having Ruan Combrink on the bench for the game in Argentina shows how much depth they have there, and we all know what Elton (Jantjies) can do. They have lost a bit at forward but they have had new guys come in that did really well against the Jaguares in Argentina. Playing in Buenos Aires is tough, and the Lions showed there what they are capable of and that at this point they are still the No 1 side.”
RETAINING THE BELIEF
His high regard for them doesn’t mean though that Leyds thinks his team can’t win.
“We can definitely win. Of course we can. We love playing at Newlands, and even though what happened at Loftus was disastrous and certainly wasn’t in our plans, it was just one of those days. We still retain the belief, we still believe we have the players in the right positions to go far in this competition. And although our backs are to the wall there is no better opportunity to make a big statement than against the Lions.”
A positive result though won’t come about without some soul-searching and improvement, and according to Leyds there was quite a bit of the former in the early stages of Monday at the High Performance Centre.
“It has been a tough Monday. We had a couple of meetings, there were some honest words said. We needed that after that performance. You could describe it as a good honest Monday. We know we let the fans down. We promised a lot of things coming in. In the warm-up games we were looking good and on Super Hero day we gave the fans something to look forward to.
“Hopefully because it is our first home game the fans will still come out to Newlands at the weekend. Hopefully there will be a good couple of people and the usual atmosphere to greet us when our bus comes down Boundary Road on our arrival to the stadium.”
THE REAL IMPACT OF 'THAT' BUS TRIP
Mention of buses of course prompts the obvious question - how much did the Stormers’ delayed arrival at Loftus after being caught in a traffic jam caused by a freeway accident impact on the team and their performance? Coach Robbie Fleck refused to make any excuses afterwards, and so did assistant coach Dawie Snyman.
However, while Leyds clearly wanted to stick to the “no excuses” line, getting a players’ view was instructive as there can be no doubt that the players being taken out of their usual routine would have had a big impact on the mental preparation. In his book, former Bok captain Gary Teichmann blamed the team’s late arrival through mismanagement for a big defeat suffered against the All Blacks in 1998, and 21 years later, in the professional era, there is no reason why there shouldn’t be a similar impact.
“It was very frustrating. We had a couple of guys with their phones out on the bus, making calculations through google on when we would arrive at the stadium. They were predicting 5.30 (15 minutes after the scheduled kick-off). Fortunately the police helped us and we were able to make it before. I think it was 20 minutes, but I am not sure. It was part of what we spoke about in our meetings today.”
While Leyds said the bus trip didn’t have an impact on the onfield performance as the players were relaxed and had their plans in place, he conceded that it was a dramatic departure from the usual routine.
“What happens before a game is not a controllable, what happens on the field is a controllable, so we can’t use it (the late arrival) as an excuse,” said the Stormers fullback.
“But our warm-up was cut drastically. Normally I see that hour before the game as important. I like to get there and have a walk on the field before the warm-up. As a player in the back three it is helpful to suss out the conditions, to establish whether there is a breeze and which way it is blowing, which side of the field it is favouring, what it is doing in the corners where it might impact on kicks.
“We weren’t able to do that at Loftus. When we went out to warm-up there were still guys strapping up and some of the big guys take a while to get going. It was not an ideal warm up. It was a case of a couple of leg stretches and then a few sprints and then we had to play. It was like I imagine it would have been in the 1970s. It was not our usual warm-up immediately prior to a game.”
"WELCOME TO THE NEW SEASON, MR LEYDS"
Leyds clearly has a sense of humour for he chuckled when he was reminded of what happened next.
“No, it doesn’t make your first game in the competition any easier when right near the start you get stepped by Rosko Specman,” he smiled.
“There is a perception that Sevens guys may not be as good as regular fifteens players but Rosko went a long way at Loftus towards changing that perception. He nearly scored a hattrick and I was really pleased for him. Having him coming out and playing so well and thus adding to the depth in his position is great for South African rugby. You couldn’t ask for a better debut.”
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