Coleman’s return is ‘great’
STORMERS skills coach Paul Feeney says that the return of flyhalf Kurt Coleman gives the team’s coaching staff a “good dilemma” ahead of their game against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday (5.15pm kickoff ).
Coleman has recovered from the ankle injury he picked up during training while on tour in New Zealand, and his return is a great one for the Stormers, who were seriously low on flyhalf options last week.
Ahead of their game against the Blues, Stormers coach Robbie Fleck considered Brandon Thomson, Joe Pietersen and Dillyn Leyds to take charge at No 10. Leyds got the nod, and although it will be a tough decision to choose between Coleman, pictured, a natural flyhalf, and Leyds, a versatile back who has been in top form, Feeney said that having a bit more depth at flyhalf makes this dilemma a positive one.
“Kurt’s back from injury, which is great for us. It’s a good dilemma to have – do we start him even though he hasn’t played for three weeks, or do we keep Dillyn who we played against the Hurricanes with and we beat the Blues with and we went alright,” Feeney said.
Meanwhile, referring to the Stormers’ tour to New Zealand, Feeney said that “getting a hiding isn’t a bad thing as long as you learn from it.” And the skills coach believes that the Stormers have definitely done that.
The Stormers, who suffered three heavy defeats to the Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes on tour, looked better at Newlands against the Blues on Friday.
And it was their defence, an area that was a huge talking point after the tour, that showed the greatest improvement.
Head coach Robbie Fleck has previously said that the team were trying to bring line speed into their defensive system, and against Tana Umaga’s side, one could see that they have definitely made some progress in that regard. And although some players’ speed on defence looked better than others, collectively, the team did look better in this area.
And Feeney praised defence coach Paul Treu for his contribution to the team’s improved defence.
“We had to cope with line speed and at times our skills did struggle, but as we’ve said all along… we know where we’re at and what changes we need to make. One is a mindset change on how to play the game and the other is a technical aspect,” Feeney said.
“We talked about the Blues with all their big ball-carriers, how many of those big ball-carriers made an impact in the game last weekend? Did Sonny Bill Williams make a great impact? Rieko Ioane? George Moala? Melani Nanai? Akira Ioane? You wouldn’t even know some of those guys played. Augustine Pulu, did he even make a break? I think that speaks volumes of what we did on defence this weekend.”
Addressing the Stormers’ new approach, the former Blues skills coach said that the team’s coaching staff are well aware of the fact that change won’t happen overnight, but he lauded the side for having already beaten New Zealand opposition in the Chiefs and Blues.
“Getting a hiding isn’t a bad thing, as long as you learn from it. We can play conservatively and kick for territory more and play to lose by 10 points, but where are you getting? What a negative mindset,” Feeney said.
“We’ve changed our mindset and we’re not playing to lose – like Robbie said – short-term pain for long-term gain. Let’s be realistic, we’ve only just started to change, and we know it’ll take two to three years. But we’re also proud of the fact that we’re the only side outside of New Zealand that has beaten a New Zealand side this year. No one else has done it, and we’ve beaten two.” And Treu agreed. The Stormers defence coach said that bringing line speed into their system will help benefit the team greatly, in that securing turnovers and, ultimately, scoring from those turnovers will do good for the players’ confidence.
“We’re probably still going to make mistakes this weekend, but I don’t think we can go back to making 250 tackles and not making any turnovers or not applying any pressure. And this is something that we as a coaching staff keep driving, and there is buying in from the players,” Treu said.