Stormers will be better prepared for Loftus scrum battle

It was Clayton Blommetjies’ missed attempted match winning conversion that most DHL Stormers blamed for the derby defeat to the Vodacom Bulls just over two weeks ago, but coach John Dobson had a different view after that game.

Instead of laying all the focus on Blommetjies and the missed late opportunities that ultimately turned the DHL Stadium leg of the home and away north/south Vodacom United Rugby Championship into an agonisingly close defeat and one that got away from them, Dobson focused on the reasons that the Stormers were forced to play catchup for most of that game.

And while there were other areas of concern, such as the defence in the wide channels that contributed to the Bulls’ try that put the visitors ahead and silenced the Cape crowd in the first two minutes of the game, it shouldn’t really require too much thought before arriving at what Dobson pinpointed. The set scrums.

There were some moments in the weeks before that, most notably at a stage of the Investec Champions Cup game against the Sale Sharks, where the opposition scrum got on top of the Stormers' big men.

But generally the Stormers scrum is the dominator rather than the dominated, and it is hard to remember when last a Stormers or Western Province scrum was annihilated like the Bulls were in the Cape Town game.

“We rectified it later but I think it was the scrumming in the first half that really put us on the back foot and was a big reason why we lost today,” said Dobson.

LATE CHANGES DIDN'T HELP

Not being in the business of making excuses, Dobson did not dwell for long on one of the contributing causes for his team’s struggle in the scrums - the late change that had to be made to both the Stormers starting team and the bench.

It is understood that Ali Vermaak and Neethling Fouche were both slated to start the game against the Bulls but were then ruled out by an accident on the training ground quite late in the week. Forwards coach Rito Hlungwani was unwilling to confirm it when he was asked the direct question on Monday, but it is rumoured that the two players ran into each other.

Not that double World Cup winner Frans Malherbe can’t deal with sudden changes of plan, but it was a change that put the Stormers’ planning out. Sti Sithole started at loosehead and was subject to a particularly torrid afternoon at the hands of the Bulls’ outsized former Stormers tighthead prop Wilco Louw.

“It did make a massive difference not having Ali and Neethling. Sometimes a change can come so late in the week that you have no time to adjust properly,” said Hlungwani.

“It was tough to have a late change like that and it was particularly tough on Sti, while Frans was in the same position that he was. But we set high standards for ourselves when it comes to the scrums and we are always chasing those standards.”

NOT UNUSUAL FOR SUDDEN SHIFTS

There have been many times in rugby history where what is a dominant scrum in one particular game can find itself under pressure against the same opponents a few weeks later.

That’s because there are so many technical adjustments that can be made at the scrums, and sometimes it just takes one or two of those to completely transform the whole unit.

“Let’s just make it clear straight up before we say anything else that the Bulls do have a very strong scrum,” said the Stormers forwards coach.

“We are not the only team to have ended up on the wrong side of their scrum. But we have played them a lot in the first few seasons of the URC and we have had games where we’ve been in position to match them and sometimes we’ve had the advantage over them.

“We have looked at what happened last time and worked really hard on rectifying it and we are looking to be a lot better this time,” he added.

Indeed, forewarned can mean fore-armed, and in the Stormers’ case it might work for them that not only should they have Vermaak and Fouche present this time to improve the depth of their scrumming effort, memories of what went wrong last time will also still be fresh.

It is also true that the Stormers’ scrum appeared to improve in the second half of the DHL Stadium game and while they didn't completely dominate the Emirates Lions unit in the most recent game, they also didn't go backwards and it was a return to business as usual.

If the Stormers have addressed the problems that blighted them at scrum time just over a fortnight ago and manage on Saturday to reverse the balance of power of the last meeting between these teams it would not be the first time in rugby history that such a thing has happened.

One thing that is crystal clear though is that the Bulls didn’t make proper use of their scrum advantage in Cape Town and they are unlikely to miss out again should their domination be repeated.

It is why the Stormers front row players and their coaches will have sweated extra hard on the scrums over the bye week that has built into this preparation week for Saturday’s game.