The Stormers’ line-out has been to the mechanic and the panel beaters a few times this season.
First, they took it to the expensive spray painters to paint over the cracks. While it looked bright on the outside, there were still too many fundamental mechanical problems on the inside. A few weeks ago, ahead of their match against the Brumbies, they took it to a backyard mechanic.
Most of their forwards were at the Springbok camp and only came back on the Thursday before the match against the Brumbies. They had to do a rush job, just a few necessary tweaks so that their set-piece could be declared roadworthy again.
The Stormers still had a few struggles against the Brumbies, but their line-out was in better shape than in the previous couple of weeks. It was mainly because they kept it simple, with a few balls going to prop Steven Kitshoff at the front, and plenty to giant lock Eben Etzebeth just behind him.
Of course, this largely negates the line-out as an attacking platform, as balls to the middle and back are lot better to launch offensive plays or a maul from. But at least they managed to secure most of their ball in that narrow win.
But the Stormers, ahead of this week’s match against the Rebels, have had two weeks to try and sort things out.
Forwards coach Matt Proudfoot said this week that a host of things have contributed to the malfunctioning of their line-out this season. And they are trying to sort it out. “I think the problem with our line-out has been consistency. A hooker throws it skew, or a prop misses a lift. The timing was also an issue and that is what we have worked on.
“We have had three particularly bad games at line-out time. The Lions game in Joburg, the Cheetahs game and the Bulls game at home are matches that hurt us.
“We are trying to negate the little mistakes we are making and trying to simplify things. I thought the line-out was quite good in the game against the Brumbies, although were not as accurate as we wanted to be.”
New recruit Bongi Mbonambi has started at hooker for the Stormers over the last month. While he makes a big contribution around the park, he hasn’t been able to find his jumpers consistently enough, the hooker throwing quite a few balls over the top.
Scarra Ntubeni, the Stormers’ regular hooker over the last few years, has also struggled at line-out time. But in a time like this, he should be the better option for the Cape franchise because he will bring a sense of familiarity to the party.
Especially with Argentine Manuel Carizza calling the line-out. He, along with Etzebeth, and even the likes Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen, have a lot more minutes together on the park than with Mbonambi, who has shown that he can also make an impact off the bench.
It’s going to be important for the Stormers to get their line-out right, because it will compliment their awesome scrum. If the two set pieces work together in harmony in the same match, it would be like Christmas with the amount ball they would have at their disposal, never mind the territory.
But most of all, a good line-out will give them a chance to have a few more cracks at the maul.
Their attacking play has been woeful with ball in hand, especially in the opposition 22, and a functioning maul will give them another try-scoring option.
The maul, though, hasn’t quite got going, primarily because they keep butchering their line-outs. But it also hasn’t been as fluent as it was in previous campaigns.
“We haven’t been mauling as well as we have in the past. It is something that we have spent a lot of time on, and we want to keep improving on that during this time of the season,” Proudfoot said.
“The games are going to get tighter and tighter in this part of the season and your accuracy has to improve. And that is what we have been working on.”
Ntubeni, though, could be the mechanic on the field to fix the issues with the line-out and the maul. With four games to go, and their play-off hopes hanging in the balance, the Stormers can’t afford any more short circuits in that area of their game. - The Star