STORMERS SEASON SO FAR: Pre-season adjustment creates platform for success

“I have a feeling that fairly soon, the Stormers are going to be unbeatable, considering they will have Wilco as the cornerstone of the pack, Sacha running the backline, and plenty of talented, hard-working players surrounding them.”
That came not from a DHL Stormers supporter, but from someone involved in rugby in Sharks country. 

There wasn’t complete agreement from the receiver of that WhatsApp message, for you’d have to quantify “fairly soon” and what is meant by “unbeatable”.

The Stormers certainly looked very beatable for long periods of their Vodacom URC game against the Lions last weekend and, given that the Wilco mentioned in that message, Wilco Louw, will be on the opposing team, you shouldn’t bet your house on the Vodacom Bulls not being able to win the 3 January north/south derby at DHL Stadium.

That might seem an odd thing to say considering the Stormers will be playing the game at home, and they’ve only lost twice at their headquarters to another South African team in the URC era. Couple that with the fact that they’ve won all nine games they’ve played across two competitions this season, and the Bulls have just lost five in a row, and it is clear the Stormers will start as favourites.

Yet the Bulls didn’t play last weekend’s derby in Durban anywhere near full strength and they might have the likes of Canan Moodie, Ruan Nortje, Marco van Staden and others back by the start of January. Plus, and this is the big one, with a full-strength pack, the Bulls are the one team in the URC that can deny the Stormers what they feast on - forward dominance, particularly in the scrums.

BENEFITTED FROM USING PRE-SEASON WISELY

So that game could be a litmus test for the Stormers as they continue on a road that was started in the pre-season. Some teams used the pre-season wisely, some wasted it (playing too many of your top players in the Currie Cup qualifies as wasting it), and others, such as the Sharks, just couldn’t have a pre-season because they had too many Springboks who were away on Rugby Championship duty.

And this is where there is agreement with my Durban friend - it may not happen right now, but the Stormers have most assuredly built a platform for success, whether that be now or maybe more realistically in a season or two. Not for nothing does Stormers director of rugby John Dobson talk of his Project 29, meaning that it is in 2029 that the Stormers should have the depth, and the personnel would have the right mileage in them, to challenge for the biggest prize of all, that being the Investec Champions Cup.

Unlike the Sharks and, to a lesser extent, the Bulls, the Stormers haven’t used the cheque-book to lure stars from outside, and neither have they brought that many big name players home (JD Schickerling is the only player who belongs in that category currently although Cobus Reinach, from the Sharks before he went overseas, is an expat back in the country).

USING FERTILE RUGBY BREEDING GROUND

What Dobson has done, though, is identify a group of players, and let it be said it is a constantly expanding one because of the fertile rugby breeding ground that the Cape region is, who can front the Stormers’ cause. Keeping players who have starred for the Stormers already is, of course, key to that, as there is no point in talking about a long-term plan if you are going to lose the players you blood as youngsters.

In this regard, the extension of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s contract by an additional two years, to make 2029 the earliest he might take leave of the Stormers for a big overseas pay packet, was a major coup for Dobson.

It means the man already rated by many at the age of 23 as the world’s best player, yes, even now ahead in some eyes of Antoine Dupont, will be there to drive the Stormers’ game for another four years. At least until he is 27, so the Stormers will be getting him in his prime.

Dobson also spoke at the post-match press conference to the win over the Lions at the weekend of securing the long term futures of other stars such as Evan Roos and Damian Willemse, and let’s not forget the young stars who surprised Dobson last year by progressing quicker than he thought they would - Paul de Villiers is the obvious example, but so is young loosehead prop Vernon Matongo, while there are big futures thought to be in several other players.

CONVEYOR BELT

There’s a conveyor belt of young talent coming through the Western Province system and while the Stormers have won every game they have played this season, they have also rotated their selections enough to mean that when Suleiman Hartzenberg, who had been injured up to that point, made his seasonal debut by coming on at wing in the second half against the Lions, he was the 41st Stormers player to be used this season.

“I am confident that every one of those 41 are good enough to play well for us in the URC and the Champions Cup,” said Dobson.

Presumably, when he says that, Dobson is also referencing young Oliver Reid, who made his Stormers debut in the URC before travelling with the SA under-19 team. That’s how young he is, but he’s said to have a huge future, and Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has made young tighthead Zachary Porthen an international player when he’s still just 21.

With the richly talented Imad Khan also having made his debut this season, there’s good succession planning underway, so that it is impossible to say right now just what the Stormers might look like in 2029, except to say that there is plenty of potential in players who could, in time, join the current stars in further bolstering the Cape team’s depth.

THEY HAVE FORWARD DEPTH

Currently, he has a few question marks at the back due to injury. Feinberg-Mngomezulu didn’t play last week because of a groin injury that is expected to be cleared up by the Bulls game, and Damian Willemse is also due back in that game from a hamstring injury.

Seabelo Senatla has been injured, stalwart centres Ruhan Nel and Dan du Plessis are both currently sidelined, and there was some concern after the Lions game about the condition of the highly promising Jonathan Roche, who injured his hand.

But like Rassie Erasmus at the national level, Dobson also has several versatile players he can call on - Willemse can play flyhalf and fullback as well as centre, Hartzenberg considers himself an outside centre more than he does a wing, and even Feinberg-Mngomezulu, although he has to be seen as the flyhalf going forward, can play midfield or fullback if needed.

Indeed, one of his finest games for the Stormers was wearing the No 12 jersey outside Jurie Matthee at fly-half in a URC game against the Sharks in Durban last year (February 2024).

But it was at forward that the quantum shift in the Stormers’ game was triggered in the off-season. If you look back at this year as a calendar year on its own, then it has been a bit iffy for the Stormers. While they did finish off the league season in rollicking form, and Feinberg-Mngomezulu made his statement when he scored a hat-trick of tries against Connacht, there was some concern at how easily they were outmuscled by the Glasgow Warriors in their away URC quarterfinal at Scotstoun.

However, the lessons were clearly internalised and worked on during the off-season, for it is now the Stormers doing the outmuscling, and it is not just the scrums, which were already dominant, where they have become particularly formidable. The quality and power packed by their maul has gone through the roof.

It is understood Ruben van Heerden may be heading to France next season but as it stands the Stormers have five quality locks if you add the promising young Connor Evans to skipper Salmaan Moerat, Schickerling, Adre Smith and Van Heerden, and there is also plenty of depth at looseforward, particularly if you remember that veteran Deon Fourie is due back on the field shortly to help Dobson manage De Villiers’ workload better.

Ruan Ackermann, son of the Bulls coach Johan, performed well at No 8 when he stood in for Roos in the initial stages of the Bayonne game in the Champions Cup, and last week Dobson had the luxury of being able to include Bok blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon on his bench. When the Stormers go the ‘bomb squad’ route, what they have is a supersonic version of the six/two split between forwards and backs.

REAPING DIVIDENDS FROM A SHIFT IN EMPHASIS

The Stormers have not shelved their attacking style, and who would do that when they have players like Feinberg-Mgnomezulu, Willemse and Warrick Gelant on their books. But what they do have now is an adjusted, more pragmatic approach initially introduced for the purpose of winning overseas, something which they are now doing, but which has made them very difficult to beat.

Lions coach Cash van Rooyen described the Stormers “as the form club team in world rugby right now” when he spoke at the post-match press conference, and, if you look at their record of nine wins in nine starts, that is hard to argue with.

What they must be careful of doing is getting too far ahead of themselves, but given the growth that is possible both individually and as a team at the Stormers, it is not fanciful to suggest that if silverware doesn’t come to them this season, the chances are they will be in strong contention for major prizes in the not-too-distant future.

Which is how it should be because the Stormers represent a region that might arguably be among the richest in the world when it comes to schools that produce world-class talent. By 2029, don’t bet against there being another Feinberg-Mngomezulu on the scene to make the original Sacha’s deliberations over his next move less fraught for the team that represents the region that produced him.