Defeat was a wake-up call not just for the Stormers

There are two high flyers in the Stormers and the Sharks and two low flyers in the form of the two inland franchises, but the question of the contribution being made to the Springbok cause by the four local Super Rugby teams demands deeper analysis than just log position.

For instance, while the Stormers still top the log a third of the way into the league season, their defeat by the Blues was a sobering wake-up call for more than just Cape fans.

The message drummed out by the emphatic Blues win could just as easily apply to any Bok fans who expect the physical domination that won the Rugby World Cup to suffice for the next four years.

Stormers coach John Dobson has based a lot on the power game that the Boks employed to win the World Cup. He has his forwards, particularly the scrum, plus a physically dominant defensive system to thank for his team’s pole position on the log table.

But the problem with making a habit of winning ugly is when you eventually lose the ugly bits that were previously ignored suddenly come into focus. And as they have racked up their early wins there have been two questions gnawing away in the background: is the physical rugby that won a seven-game Rugby World Cup sustainable for an 18-game competition, and what happens to the Stormers on the day they get physically fronted?

Maybe we got the answer against the Blues, and it wasn’ ta positive one. Dobson rates the potential of his backs, but they may not be as good as he thinks they are.

Just as I wrote last week that the question mark against the Sharks is that against some opponents you do need the forward depth that perhaps they lack, you also can’t expect to win Super Rugby if you are largely a set-piece team.

Dobson knows that, which is why even while his team was winning he tended to be far from euphoric at post-match media conferences.

Likewise, the Bok brains trust of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber aren’t naive enough to think that winning, which really is the bottom line at a Rugby World Cup, will remain the only relevance.

Now that they are world champions, expectations will have gone up. Just winning won’t be enough against teams the supporters view as inferior, which will be just about every team now other than New Zealand and England.

There will be a demand for the wins to be achieved with some style. That’s just the way it works once you’ve made the switch from aiming to be champions to being champions.

So there is a need to evolve for more than just the reason that the other nations will evolve, which takes us to the Sharks, who on several levels are making a more positive contribution to improving the Bok stocks than any of the other franchises.

They are the one SA team that is not predictable on attack, and they and perhaps the Lions — when they are helped by altitude in Joburg — are the exception to the local rule of physical dominance being everything.

The positiveness started at the Sharks with the decision to appoint Lukhanyo Am as the captain, thus ensuring that Siya Kolisi is not the only black African leadership option available to the Boks.

It continued with the performances of players such as Aphelele Fassi, who the Sharks have backed even though there are some core aspects of fullback play he is still learning. They are now reaping the dividends.

Giving Louis Schreuder the No 9 jersey against the Reds made sense if you consider the conditions in Brisbane demand a good kicking game. But coach Sean Everitt has already given Sanele Nohamba a start. Knowing Everitt, he won’t be afraid to back Nohamba to be a more regular starter shortly.

Everitt has been brave in his willingness to back the youngsters and in deciding when to rotate his selections to fit into the Springbok resting protocols. That’s another level where they’ve delivered in furthering the Bok cause.

In direct contrast to them, the Bulls and Lions seem straightjacketed by conservatism, with the Lions not helping the national cause with their treatment of Wandisele Simelane.

Had Jaque Fourie been playing for them, I’d understand Simelane being left out of the starting team. But they don’t have players of that quality, and Simelane is a special talent. He plays one of the positions, outside centre, where the Boks lack depth.

Instead of using Morné Steyn as a mentor for Manie Libbok, the Bulls have revolved their game around the former Bok flyhalf, and appear to be stampeding back into the past.

Their predictability on attack against the Jaguares was the antithesis of the direction in which John Mitchell was taking them when he was in charge at Loftus.