Stormers looking past the injuries

The DHL Stormers players are making a concerted effort to overcome the team disruptions caused by injuries by treating them as a challenge that is part and parcel of rugby and needs to be overcome.

The Stormers have been severely disrupted by injury over the past two weeks and with more players in doubt or otherwise already ruled out ahead of Saturday’s penultimate Vodacom Super Rugby league fixture against the Sunwolves at Newlands, coach Robbie Fleck is going to have to find a way to paper over the cracks that started to show against the Lions last week.

The Stormers went to Johannesburg in a good space after two successive positive results against New Zealand teams but returned home chastened by a 41-22 defeat. The Stormers lost both starting locks Eben Etzebeth and Cobus Wiese during the game, plus wing Seabelo Senatla, while hooker Scarra Ntubeni was forced out on the eve of the game.

Faced with that sort of disruption, and let’s not forget the Stormers were already without two Springboks in Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit from the side that beat the Highlanders in their previous match, plus the hard working loose-forward Kobus van Dyk, it would be easy for the Stormers to blame the defeat on injuries.

However, both prop Wilco Louw and flyhalf Josh Stander refused to point to the disruptions as an explanation for their poor performance in Johannesburg when they were interviewed by the Cape media.

“There was a bit of disruption to the pack but there will be injuries. Next week there will be injuries, there will always be injuries, injuries are part of rugby, so we must just deal with it and we can’t use it as an excuse,” said Louw.

Stander took a similar line.

“It is difficult when you lose players before and during a game and generally it is never easy when you have injuries during a game and during a season but we just have to try and work around it and can’t use it as an excuse,” said the flyhalf.

“We have to work hard for each other and fight for each other and take it game by game from here.”

Louw is adamant that the Stormers’ quest for a play-off spot is far from over.

“We can definitely still make it, I have no shadow of a doubt about that, and my view is shared by everyone else in the squad,” said the Springbok prop.

“There isn’t anyone who doubts we can still make the play-offs, either in the playing squad or the coaching group. All the players are determined to make the season a success and losing in Johannesburg hasn’t changed that.”

The bus that definitely has left the station for the Stormers is the dream of winning the conference. The Jaguares have that pretty much sewn up, and even if they imploded spectacularly and dramatically in their last two games, it is mathematically impossible for the Stormers to catch them up.

Where Louw is right though is that making the play-offs by squeezing into the top eight is a strong possibility, particularly as the Stormers face one of the teams also vying for a position in the top eight, the Sharks, at Newlands in their last game. Win against both the Sunwolves and the Sharks and the Stormers would probably have done enough to sneak in if you consider that one of the Lions or Bulls will cancel each other out in the last week too.

The fact the Stormers are playing the Sunwolves is an advantage too, but the Stormers are clearly guarding against complacency.

“Every game is important and we don’t want to lose but we prefer to look forward rather than backwards and we are looking forward to the weekend and the match against the Sunwolves,” said Louw. “The Sunwolves have a good scrum and a good attacking game and we are expecting a tough match.”

There shouldn’t be any prizes offered to those who have guessed that Louw has targeted the scrum, which was poor against the Lions, as one of the big areas needing improvement.

“We are generally proud of our scrumming but are not proud of what happened at the weekend. We must scrum a lot better than that. Our defence wasn’t good either so we need to work hard with Norman (Laker) on getting our spacing right. We need to be more dominant in our tackling.”

Defence wasn’t an area of concern though after the Crusaders and Highlanders game and the fact that it wall went so badly south for them in Johannesburg is probably an indication of the fatigue that is setting in at the end of an extended league season and the disruption caused by injuries.

Louw and Stander are right though - there is no point complaining about it, they just have to get on with finding a way to get around the disruptions and rediscover a bit of the assurance and energy showed against the Crusaders two and a bit weeks ago.