Normally the first warm-up game of the year won’t have much bearing on the Stormers’ chances of Super Rugby success.
But the harsh lessons of the last two years, when they failed to reach the playoffs after losing their opening games and making a poor start to the season, have been heeded.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee wants to avoid a repeat of last year’s disastrous 34-10 defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park in their Super Rugby opener against the Bulls at Loftus on February 14, and that process will start in tomorrow’s friendly in George, where the SWD Eagles lie in wait.
Despite also playing a few warm-ups last year, one got the sense that the Stormers were underdone going into that Lions game, especially as they also had to contend with a bye in the first week of Super Rugby. So, Coetzee and his team cannot allow themselves to just go through the motions against what would be a spirited but ultimately weak SWD outfit.
“We got off to a shocking start (last year)! Part of our goal-setting is to make sure that you end on top of your conference, which would ensure that you are in the playoffs. And once you play local teams, home or away, it’s big points. So if you get any points against them, it’s what you want to do,” the coach said this week.
“We realised in the Currie Cup how important it is to win away games. It’s never easy, but it’s very important. We must collect points in conference games, so that is how we will approach this year. You have to get off to a good start, because after round five or before you go on tour, you’ve got to be in that top six.
“If you’re not and you go on tour, it’s like scrambling again. That’s what we got right in 2011 and 2012, and we maintained it on tour as well, and even kicked on the one year.
“Then you come back and get a couple of home games where you can maintain the momentum. Then at the end, you must have your strongest possible side to go for the top of the table. Easier said than done, but the conference games are very important.”
Coetzee mentioned five key areas in which the Stormers hope to excel tomorrow – set-pieces, exits from their own half, breakdowns, defence and their attacking game. The last-mentioned has been the major shortcoming in their make-up in recent seasons, but for once, the coach is promising that they will continue to work from the blueprint that brought them success in the Currie Cup.
“And then with our attack also, things that worked for us, we actually … It’s the first time that we will have that continuity going into Super Rugby, and the buy-in is there from all the players, and we actually want to keep doing that,” said Coetzee.
“It’s difficult to say where exactly we want to capitalise, as we would then be giving our gameplan away. But once we are in our structured play, we want to see that we capitalise on that, that we finish and score tries that can be created from those unstructured situations.”
For Damian de Allende and Steven Kitshoff, though, the match takes on even greater importance.
Inside centre De Allende was one of the few stand-outs in a dismal Stormers campaign last year, but the knee injury sustained against the Sharks on May 31 kept him out for over two months, and he wasn’t able to hit top form again as he didn’t get much gametime at the Springboks.
Bizarrely, because he was a contracted Bok, he couldn’t even turn out for WP in the Currie Cup, so apart from the 23 minutes of gametime he got as a replacement for the injured Jean de Villiers in the Wales Test in November, De Allende hasn’t played since the Test against Argentina on August 23.
Loosehead prop Kitshoff injured knee ligaments against the Highlanders in early May and has been out ever since, so it’s certainly a fresh start for him after playing almost non-stop rugby since 2012.
TEAMS FOR GEORGE
SWD: 15 Elric van Vuuren, 14 Clint Wagman, 13 Kirsten Heyns, 12 Luzuko Vulindlu, 11 Alshaun Bock, 10 Leighton Eksteen, 9 Dillon Snell, 8 Zandré Jordaan, 7 Christo du Plessis (captain), 6 Junior Bester, 5 Mzwanele Zito, 4 Schalk Oelofse, 3 Pieter Stemmet, 2 Marius Fourie, 1 Layle Delo. Bench: 16 Wayne Khan, 17 Dextor Fahey, 18 Ashley Buys, 19 Grant le Roux, 20 Lyndon Hartnick, 21 Buran Parks, 22 Dwayne Kelly, 23 Daniel Robberts, 24 Brian Skosana, 25 Ashwin Scott.
Stormers: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 EW Viljoen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Kurt Coleman, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen (captain), 7 Michael Rhodes, 6 Rynhardt Elstadt, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Gerbrandt Grobler, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff. Bench: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Oliver Kebble, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Jurie van Vuuren, 20 Neil Rautenbach, 21 Mike Willemse, 22 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 23 Louis Schreuder, 24 Demetri Catrakilis, 25 Huw Jones, 26 Jaco Taute, 27 Godlen Masimla, 28 Robert du Preez.
Referee: Quinton Immelman. Kickoff: 4.30pm.
TV: Not televised.