Stormers reveal weekly ‘Kiwi day’

Some might call it madness and others genius‚ but Thursdays at Stormers’ training are no longer gentle strolls through matchday preparation‚ but rather a thunderously intense session designed to take players to the limit of their capabilities.

The afternoon field session has become known as “Kiwi day” at the High Performance Centre in Bellville. It was a closely guarded secret until flyhalf Rob du Preez casually tossed in the phrase when answering a question this week. There was a pricking of journalists’ ears when he said: “Every Thursday, we call a ‘Kiwi day’ where we prepare for them [New Zealand teams]‚ because we know they pose a different threat. We go hard at each other on Thursdays.”

He did not expand and it was left to coach Robbie Fleck to try to throw a fire blanket on the remark. “Kiwi day is when we increase the intensity‚ physicality and the tempo of our training session‚” he said.

“It’s a 55-minute session, where it’s full on and we try to beat match-day intensity. It’s full contact and hard. The full contact part is only a portion of the session but it’s all about doing more than is required in a match situation. The mind-set is to beat a Kiwi type of game. We do it on a Thursday because it’s closer to the match and players are starting to feel the intensity of the match already. They’re starting to switch on.

“Some teams like to do contact on a Tuesday, but we prefer it being closer to the match. The All Blacks do 10 to 15 minutes of it on Thursday as well. We don’t want to be like them‚ but we want to beat them and they are the standard at the moment.

“We never used to do contact here at the Stormers in a week leading up to a match because some of the older players didn’t enjoy it and wanted to stay fresh. But we have taken a different approach without fear of injuries,” Fleck said.

There is no doubt that the concept was introduced by New Zealander Paul Feeney who joined the Stormers’ coaching staff in 2017.

Although there is reluctance on the part of the Stormers to admit they are focusing on New Zealand teams‚ they are right to prepare as if they were playing the Chiefs every weekend. New Zealand rugby is the standard‚ which the world is trying to match‚ and there is no shame in the Stormers trying to do the same. /