Before a ball had even been kicked in this year's Super 12, Stormers coach Gert Smal made the mistake that would cost his team heavily: he made Gaffie du Toit his goal-kicker and flyhalf.
After beating the Sharks in their opening game at Newlands, the Stormers set off for Australasia with Smal predicting that his team aimed to win all four games on the road.
And why not? The Stormers had 11 players from 2004's Tri-Nations winning team and many expected them to reach the Super 12 semis.
First came a 16-16 draw against the Highlanders in Dunedin where the Stormers played well enough, but where Du Toit kicked only two out of his five goals.
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| the Stormers played well enough |
Against the Brumbies in Canberra the Stormers gave their most competitive performance of the season. But they still lost 22-19.
Then came a 25-10 defeat by the Waratahs in Sydney where hooker Pieter Dixon had nine balls poached in the lineouts. Two weeks before Smal had called Dixon the best lineout thrower in South Africa.
In the next match Hurricanes flyhalf Jimmy Gopperth put over a late drop-goal to win the match 12-9.
The Stormers still returned home with a better log position than the Bulls but, unlike Meyer, Smal had failed to see the shortcomings.
"I will say that with six games left there are still 30 points up for grabs," Smal said at the time. "That would take us to 38 points. With 38 points still to play for I would say we are still in the competition. The guys will be really motivated to make a difference at home and with a fairly strong squad available we can still build momentum. We just need to cut out errors."
The Stormers' first game after the tour was an unconvincing 15-13 win against the Reds. After that it went mostly downhill.
It started in the second half against the Crusaders, who won 51-23. Smal and his players were booed off the field by a 45 000 Newlands crowd.
The next week they were given a rugby lesson in skill and flair by a Blues side who won 37-24. The Stormers led 24-0, then failed to score in the next 60 minutes.
A week later the Stormers made some amends by getting their only bonus point of the season for scoring four tries. This was against the Chiefs when they turned things around in the second half but still lost 37-34 to a late penalty.
Smal resigned a week later, just after his team had beaten the Cats 25-20.
Just how bad the Stormers had become was exposed a week later at Loftus where they suffered their biggest ever defeat in their final Super 12 match of the season.
The rot, however, had set in long before the annihilation of Loftus.
- This article was originally published on page 20 of Cape Argus on May 17, 2005
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