SPORT Stormers ready for Chiefs
Cape side much improved at coping with NZ-type tempo. intensity
IT seems like both the Stormers and the Chiefs will be going into their much-anticipated clash at Newlands tomorrow with the goal of nullifying the opposition’s attack and offloading game.
When Chiefs coach Dave Rennie addressed the media in Cape Town on Wednesday, he said that one of their main goals going into the match against the Stormers was to do exactly that.
Stormers coach Robbie Fleck, of course, yesterday added that Rennie’s men won’t be the only ones looking to limit the opposition’s attacking damage, and he knows what the Chiefs can do.
When the Stormers hosted the Chiefs in the Super Rugby quarter-final at Newlands last year, the Stormers struggled to cope with the Chiefs’ tempo and intensity, and since that 60-21 whipping, the Stormers have worked hard at advancing their attacking game and preparing for the New Zealand teams… so much so that they’ve been having weekly “Kiwi Days”. And their hard work has showed. The Stormers not only look better conditioned, but a lot of the things they’ve tried on attack have also stuck. So it makes sense that Rennie has recognised the threat ahead of their Round Seven showdown.
“He’s obviously done his work and noticed that that’s a strength of ours (attack and offoads). Knowing Dave Rennie he’ll come up with some smart plans to try and nullify that,” Fleck said.
“We have to nullify the same things from them, they’ve just probably been doing it for longer than us. So we’ve got our work cut out. They’re an aggressive team and they come hard off the line, they don’t mind giving away penalties.”
Fleck knows all too well that you can’t rely on penalties to beat the Chiefs, and the Stormers boss said that his team was going into the huge clash to “win by tries” – whatever it takes.
At the Stormers’ team announcement at Newlands yesterday, Fleck said the only way to beat the Kiwi opposition was by scoring more tries than Dave Rennie’s team. And considering the game the Stormers have been playing, scoring tries definitely seems all-important to them.
“Our mindset going into this game is we’re going to win it by tries, and if that means we’re going to have to push the offloads and play like we have in the past, then that’s the way we’re going to do it,” Fleck said.
“They don’t mind you going for the three points, but we have to be better than that. We can’t just accept three points all the time, we have to keep pushing.”
“If you want to beat the Chiefs, you have to score more tries than them, their mindset is they’ll going to outscore you and they’ll defend their line whatever it takes. They can play any game they want to and they can do it in any conditions.
“For us to just mindlessly kick at them and try and defend our way to winning, these days against Kiwi sides it’s not the right way to go.
The Chiefs have named a number of potent kickers in their backline, including Stephen Donald at inside centre. But Fleck said that he wasn’t too concerned about that, because the Chiefs will play their “natural game” and not kick too much ball away.
“They’ve got some great kickers in their backs. They’re all tactically smart and they get good distance,” Fleck said.
“So I do feel they could work us a little bit there and test our back three, but their natural game is to play and work off your mistakes. It will play a part, but once they get going their natural game will come into place.”
Fleck also said that their heavy defeat to the Chiefs hasn’t been a talking point in the Stormers change-rooms, and added that they’ve enjoyed a good week in terms of preparation, despite the fact that a number of their players weren’t able to take part in every Stormers training session due to their involvement in the Springbok training camp in Stellenbosch this week.
“I’m the only one who’s mentioned it in the media to be honest (the defeat). We haven’t discussed it at all as a group. We know what happened last year and we don’t have to remind the players of that. We’ve just been focusing on what we have to do. The Chiefs pose the same problems, and we’ve spent the majority of our pre-season fixing those problems. It’s been a good week.”