Defending local unbeaten status will put Stormers in pound seats
They have a lot to play for as four key players are missing due to Boks resting protocols
It is interesting to reflect on how much the pendulum has swung in South African rugby when it comes to the perceptions of balance of power over the past year.
At this time in 2022 the DHL Stormers had just scored a shock win over the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus and had drawn with the Cell C Sharks at home.
They were about to host the Sharks in a return fixture at DHL Stadium, and it was probably at that point, with that win, that the perception started to shift.
The Stormers might still have been financial weaklings, but they stopped being what coach John Dobson, with a touch of irony and sarcasm, referred to as “his little team.” They suddenly became strong contenders to achieve their primary goal, which was qualification for this year’s Heineken Champions Cup. And for the first time there was talk of them perhaps winning the South African Shield.
Winning the competition seemed a fanciful notion, remembering that at the time there wasn’t much hope for any South African team given how strong Leinster were perceived to be. The then PRO14 champions were comfortably top of the log and looking forward to a home run of knock-out fixtures. Ironically, the Stormers lifting the trophy to cap their fairytale season happened with quite a lot of help from their arch-rivals, the Bulls, who shocked Leinster in the semifinal.
But here we are a year later and perceptions have changed. The Stormers have beaten the Bulls three times in the past year, admittedly all at DHL Stadium, and they haven’t dropped a game to a South African team since they were upset by the Emirates Lions in Cape Town in early December 2021.
The Bulls’ trophy-winning exploits of the early stage of the post Covid lockdown era are starting to recede from memory, and while the Stormers might be hard pressed when there are injuries because they don’t have the depth, at least not experienced depth, of the other top franchises, they’ve made a pretty good fist of their season as champions so far. The Stormers are also missing four key players to Bok resting protocols, but the Sharks, although they did well last week in Edinburgh, are a different animal without Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Jaden Hendrikse and, it is to be assumed, this week Thomas du Toit and Ox Nche too.
The conditions will favour the Sharks and we know that there is a target on the Stormers ’ backs these days due to how much the pendulum has swung since the Stormers were last in Durban in the last weekend of last January. But the Stormers, who like the Sharks are due for a much needed two-week break after 11 successive weeks of rugby, have a lot to play for given that they are visiting Loftus next.
Their gap on the Bulls at the top of the conference is five points. They have a game in hand, but after Saturday that game in hand disappears. A defeat at Kings Park will give the Bulls something extra to aim at in the Loftus showdown.
Victory though will re-establish the Stormers ’ breathing space and put them back into the pound seats, at least in the Shield battle. —