Despite the extra week off, coach John Dobson feels that the Stormers are “definitely not ready” for the start of the United Rugby Championship following a series of issues that have hampered their pre-season.
The organisers announced last week that the Cape side’s blockbuster opener against the Bulls in Cape Town on September 21 has been postponed to sometime next year due to the Currie Cup final taking place on the same day.
That decision has had a knock-on effect, as it meant that Dobson would’ve adopted a different selection strategy in the last few rounds of the Currie Cup to ensure that his top players get enough game time before their new URC start against the Ospreys in Swansea on September 28.
Now the Capetonians – who are currently on a camp in the Garden Route area – are “phoning around” for a friendly game in the next two weeks.
To make matters worse, stalwart prop Steven Kitshoff has sustained a neck ligament injury that will keep him sidelined for “at least six weeks”, said Dobson, which comes on the back off injuries to fellow looseheads Ali Vermaak and Lizo Gqoboka.
Dobson, speaking in a Vodacom URC media round table this week, said that he will not sign another No 1 at this stage of the season as there was simply no one in the market “who would make a difference”, and that he will back the likes of Sti Sithole, Brok Harris, Leon Lyons and youngster Vernon Matongo.
“It’s a helluva setback,” Dobson said of the postponement of the Bulls game. “We would’ve approached the Currie Cup differently, for one – there’s no question around that.
“Secondly, all the coaches on this call would’ve had every session planned, your whole progression planned – how many minutes you wanted for each player ahead of the first game.
“Now we are literally on the phone today trying to organise a friendly. It’s disruptive, and we were looking forward to the momentum of being at DHL Stadium – we’ve driven season tickets hard and there is a lot of interest.
“Now that’s sort of taken away, so it’s a blow in terms of trying to get the season under way in Cape Town. Us against the Bulls is a big occasion for the rugby fans of Cape Town, so to take it off the table is a bit disappointing.
“But I suppose it’s something to look forward to whenever it’s played, in February or March.”
Pre-season camp is not for the faint-hearted. Forwards Coach Rito Hlungwani puts his pack through their paces. #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/zRtHF5WaYL
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) September 11, 2024
Now the Stormers face a real challenge of getting key players such as Damian Willemse and Warrick Gelant ready for the Ospreys clash – as Western Province missed out on this weekend’s Currie Cup semi-finals after finishing second-last on the eight-team log on 20 points, 10 behind the fourth-placed Cheetahs.
“We are definitely not ready at the moment. That game against Griquas in the Currie Cup (last Friday, a 37-29 loss in Kimberley) was meant to be our last game,” Dobson said.
“But once we had a postponement (in the URC), we knew we had to find another game. There are still guys like Warrick Gelant, Ruhan Nel who have had no game time.
“A guy like Dan du Plessis is only on 60 minutes, and so is Neethling Fouché – so we are way off match-readiness now.
“The areas that we probably want to improve are the line-outs, line-out to maul can be better, maul defence.
“We feel that we have been there or thereabouts in all three URC seasons. Kitsie (Kitshoff), JD Schickerling and Dave Ewers are three guys who we needed to add more depth, so that we can compete.
Connecting on camp 🙌 #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/jN3VDy1rjp
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) September 11, 2024
“In both competitions, we just didn’t have the depth among our forwards to compete in both, so we picked up in the right area there – although Kitsie’s now out for at least six to eight weeks.
“You learn a lot, like how effective Glasgow were in the maul and line-out contesting, and that’s probably an area we needed to sharpen up in, and why we boosted our personnel in pre-season.
“But we are not ready yet – we definitely need to find a game.”
Stormers’ opening URC fixtures
Saturday, September 28, 8.35pm: Ospreys, Swansea
Saturday, October 5, 8.35pm: Zebre, Parma
Saturday, October 12, 6.15pm: Edinburgh
Saturday, October 19, 6pm: Munster, Cape Town
Saturday, October 26, 1.45pm: Glasgow, Cape Town