Coleman, Stormers must bury Bloem bogey

Kurt Coleman is relishing to put things right for the Stormers against the Cheetahs. File Photo: Matthew Jordaan

Kurt Coleman is relishing to put things right for the Stormers against the Cheetahs. File Photo: Matthew Jordaan

Published Mar 5, 2016

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Cape Town - He missed four second-half penalties in Bloemfontein last year, but Kurt Coleman is relishing to put things right for the Stormers against the Cheetahs on Saturday.

Coleman, like he did last season, will start on the bench at the Free State Stadium, with Robert du Preez wearing the No 10 on Saturday.

In 2015, Demetri Catrakilis was in the starting role and went off with an injury at halftime, which saw Coleman come out for the second half. Nothing went right for the 26-year-old, though, as he goaled just one out of five goal-kicks in a 25-17 defeat.

But the Stormers are making a fresh start under new coach Robbie Fleck, and he feels Coleman – a talented playmaker – won’t be affected by what happened in the past, and won’t be a worried man if the Knysna-born pivot is required in the second half on Saturday.

“Ja, look, it’s been a year. And his girlfriend is living in Cape Town now, so he should be all right! She was living up in Bloem back then. Kurt is fine – he is just very keen to get stuck in and play some rugby,” the coach said this week.

And it helps the situation that Du Preez was outstanding in the goal-kicking department against the Bulls last week, landing seven out of seven for a 23-point haul, which included a try.

“If you look at World Cup stats or any competition, your goal-kickers needs to be hitting 90-percent plus. And that’s what Robert did at the weekend, so it obviously give us a lot of confidence. It’s always a titanic battle and it’s important that you slot your goals and get your penalties,” Fleck said.

“He will take a huge amount of confidence out of the game – it was a huge step up for him – and for that matter, Kurt as well. He was involved last year and is just relishing the opportunity of going back up to Bloem and playing some good rugby.”

But the Stormers have to deal with the fact that they have lost at the Free State Stadium for three years in a row. Skipper Juan de Jongh and Fleck were adamant that they are not going to go back into the past, though.

“We are not focusing on the past now. It’s all about this weekend. They are a different team and there are players who haven’t been there over the past three years – even in our squad as well,” De Jongh said.

“So, we are starting on a clean slate with them, and don’t want to think about it too much. They are going to come out firing, especially after what happened against the Jaguares, when they led 24-3 and would feel the game slipped away from them. They will come out firing, and it’s something that won’t shock us.”

Fleck added: “I can’t really pinpoint that (reasons why they lost in Bloemfontein), but I am going to back-up what the captain said – this is a new team, and we are not going to dwell too much on what happened in the past.

“We understand that we’ve lost there the last three years in a row, but we are not going to go further than that. We are focused on our prep, we’ve got a job to do here.”

But it would help them to try and avoid some of the pitfalls that have bedevilled them in the past. Apart from the goal-kicking, the defence – normally their strongest suit – has let them down at the Free State Stadium over the last three years, as they have conceded tries, through missed tackles, that the Cheetahs would never have scored at Newlands.

The execution on attack has also been found wanting at times in Bloem, but Fleck will hope that his team can build on their positive second-half display against the Bulls last week in that regard.

The likes of Cheslin Kolbe and Dillyn Leyds are another year more experienced, and they will have to guide 20-year-old rookie wing Leolin Zas, an exciting talent whose express pace must be utilised out wide.

It’s almost as if the Stormers get dragged down to the Cheetahs’ level in Bloemfontein – like a boxer being drawn into a slug-fest instead of sticking to his pre-fight plan – and they cannot allow that to happen again.

It’s time for the Stormers to bury their Bloemfontein bogey, once and for all.

Teams for Bloemfontein:

Cheetahs:15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Maks van Dyk, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Charles Marais.

Bench:16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Francois Uys, 20 Boom Prinsloo, 21 Henco Venter, 22 Tian Meyer, 23 Niel Marais.

Stormers:15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Juan de Jongh (captain), 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Oli Kebble.

Bench:16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Nic Groom, 22 Kurt Coleman, 23 Huw Jones.

* Follow @IndyCapeSport on Twitter for live updates of the Cheetahs-Stormers match.

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Cape Argus

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