Cape Town - Jean-Luc du Plessis was at the heart of the Stormers’ record-breaking performance last week, but weather conditions will require him to play an even more significant role against the Force on Saturday.
A 100 percent chance of rain has been predicted for Perth on match-day, and with the inclement weather starting on Friday and going all the way through to Sunday, a soggy nib Stadium is likely to greet the Cape outfit (1.55pm SA time kickoff).
But the Stormers have a job to do – win, and they will have secured top spot in Africa Conference 1 and increased their chances of hosting a semi-final as well. Lose, and next week’s final league game against the Southern Kings becomes a must-win encounter.
And you wouldn’t blame the Stormers if they arrived at the field with thoughts of another bonus-point win to follow the 57-31 triumph over the Rebels last week. The Force are in disarray at the moment, with coach Michael Foley fired during the June Test break; an interim head coach in Dave Wessels, who has never been in charge of a team at Super Rugby level before; and a South African tour scandal where alcohol was allegedly involved last week.
They’ve also lost their captain, prop Pek Cowan, as he was among a group of players who broke the team curfew in the same incident.
Fleck, though, is not falling for the old trap of underestimating the opposition. Especially with the expected weather conditions. “That’s the Force’s business and I don’t know what happened there. But our attitude and approach, there certainly won’t be complacency. We still need to qualify and win our conference, and our goal was to win both games on tour. The team is motivated to do well,” the coach said from Perth on Thursday.
“We got a record score last week and want to better that performance. We haven’t qualified, we haven’t won any trophies, nothing like that. So there is huge motivation in the squad, and the other objective on this trip was to build momentum on and off the pitch. This is a big game for us.”
Du Plessis scored 27 points in Melbourne, and Fleck wants him to repeat his second-half performance from that game and cut out the errors when exiting his own 22. “Just at times we didn’t find touch when we were under pressure and just simple things like that – we lost the ball at the breakdown a couple of times when we were setting it up to exit. But it was much better in the second half and we were able to get that territory,” he said.
“There is big rain predicted for the next two days, so exits are going to be a big focus for us and need to be spot-on. Jean-Luc is a work in progress, and the way he performed in the second half was exactly what we were looking for in a flyhalf. He keeps it simple and keeps our pack moving forward.
“We want him to make those good decisions – when it’s time to run, he must run. When it’s time to find space, he must do that. With that sort of weather, you need a flyhalf who has options and need to make good decisions, along with the scrumhalf – play in the right areas, and to keep ball-in-hand and put them under pressure.”
@IndyCapeSport
Independent Media