Stormers still catching up on speed of thought, execution

NICK MALLETT really hit the nail on the head when he spoke about the Lions in the SuperSport studios this weekend.

“They have the ability not only to play with width, but play at pace. They have a flyhalf in Elton Jantjies who controls the rhythm of the game, and the scrumhalf Faf de Klerk is absolutely brilliant.

“The skills levels of this Lions team are well above our other franchise players and the reasons for it are consistency of selection, the same two coaches and a captain in Warren Whiteley who everyone supports – and a very good squad in which they apply the rotation policy well.”

Mallett admits that the Joburg outfit, who beat the former Super Rugby champions the Chiefs over the weekend, have been his favourite South African team to watch, and the SA team that actually resembles a New Zealand side.

Basically, all South African teams have talked about adopting a new, dynamic style of play this season, but the Lions seem to be the only team who can execute this style of play properly.

It’s probably because this mindshift started quite a few years back, during the time when New Zealanders John Mitchell and Carlos Spencer were still in charge of the side. Current coaches Johan Ackermann and Swys De Bruin then took it forward, and their patience and persistence is starting to pay off.

The key to playing a dynamic ball-inhand game is the speed of thought and execution. Your skills level needs to be very high to do this, while you have to be confident enough in your own ability to pull it off.

The Lions do everything at speed, because their flyhalf Elton Jantjies takes the ball very flat and very fast. Because Jantjies runs hard with the ball in two hands, and because there are always players running off both his shoulders at pace, the Lions put defensive lines on the back foot because they don't know who will get the ball.

The Stormers are trying to move in a similar direction, but at the moment they are way behind the Lions when it comes to playing this sort of game.

The Stormers arguably have better backs, but they are struggling to get going because they are not used to the new game plan.

We saw glimpses of the Stormers’ handling capabilities when Juan de Jongh and Cheslin Kolbe sent rookie wing Leolin Zas away to score against the Cheetahs, and their continuity and willingness to attack when Sikhumbuzo Notshe burst through a tackle to score in the second half.

But for the most part they play like individuals on attack, with one-off runners who are easy to defend against, while their backs are running across the field, rather than running straight into gaps and offloading.

They are also not executing their plays at pace, which of course eliminates the element of surprise.

Like I mentioned earlier, this Lions team understand their game inside out. The Stormers’ youngsters, though, have been trained to play a different way while coming through the ranks over the last few years. Basically their brains have to be rebooted, and all the bad habits of the old days deleted.

At least the intent is there from the Stormers, but fans will have to patient, because it’s going to take time for them to get this new style of play to be second nature.

The Stormers are a big team, and there will always be an expectation to do well – after all we do live in rugby-mad Cape Town.

The Stormers also have some proper talent in their team, which suggests that they may be able to go far in this competition. But it may take a few more weeks – or even a season – for them to play the sort of rugby that the Lions dished up over the weekend.

If they can do that, they have the talent at their disposal to roar louder than they ever have and make their long-suffering fans purr.