Scarra Ntubeni is set to bolster the Stormers pack for Saturday’s Super Rugby clash against the Reds at Newlands (3pm kickoff).
Ntubeni sat out the thrilling 29-22 defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park at the weekend with a hamstring niggle, but coach Robbie Fleck said on Monday after practice in Bellville that the Stormers’ first-choice hooker should return against the Reds.
“Siya (Kolisi) had a bone bruising on his knee, and JD Schickerling had a stiff back. But other than that, it’s actually a clean bill of health – which is quite surprising considering that it was such a physical game. It’s nice to come away unscathed. They should be ready for selection, and Scarra has been working hard, so he should be hopefully available for selection this week as well,” Fleck said.
But while the Lions were just that one step too far for the Stormers, former Springbok centre Fleck felt relatively positive about his team’s performance in Johannesburg.
The undoubted highlight for the Cape side was Kolisi’s terrific touchdown that began with a Damian de Allende chip and chase, and was sparked by Nizaam Carr’s mini-break and offload past lock Andries Ferreira around the Lions’ breakdown fringes.
Carr found captain Juan de Jongh, who passed inside to Nic Groom, who fed a flying Kolisi, who jinked one way and went the other to leave Elton Jantjies rooted to the spot.
“I think we made big strides in our attack and put them under pressure, but it wasn’t quite as fluid and clinical as theirs was. So I guess that’s the work in progress. They’ve been playing like that for four years, where we’ve been playing like this for three months,” Fleck said.
“That’s why I can sit here and say it was, even though we lost, there were plenty of positives. I still feel fairly satisfied with the performance at the end of the day. At the end of the day, they were the better side. I certainly felt that their attack had an edge on our attack. I felt that our defence was a massive improvement from the Sunwolves game. Sure, we dropped off one or two one-on-one tackles.
“I felt that maybe our exits weren’t as good as it should’ve been. When we got points, they had the ability to apply pressure on us, where we didn’t relieve pressure so well. So, that’s certainly a work-on for us.”
Western Province Rugby Union president Thelo Wakefield took to Facebook on Saturday night to bemoan the performance of referee Stuart Berry, who appeared to penalise the Stormers heavily at the breakdown while ignoring some of the Lions’ errors.
Wakefield used the word “robbed” in his post, and wrote “Have a good night’s rest, ‘Man in the middle’.” at the end.
Fleck, though, wouldn’t be drawn on what he thought of Berry’s performance, probably mindful of the heavy fines dished out to coaches when they criticise match officials.
Asked if he frustrated with some of Berry’s decisions, Fleck said: “No! At the end of the day, we were beaten by the better team on the day, and that’s the way we’ll look at it. We will certainly not going to look at it in any other way – we wouldn’t be doing ourselves any justice. We certainly dug deep in terms of our analysis, and we saw what was good and where we could improve.
“Give the Lions credit, they were good. But we weren’t too far off…”
Fleck said that they do speak to the match officials before and after every match. “We do (engage with the referee), with every ref. We took a leaf out of the handbook of what Chean Roux has been doing with the Springboks – we certainly engage with refs prior and post games,” he said.
“Obviously that feedback is massively important to us as management and a group of players. So we certainly do engage with all referees, and we are in constant communication with them because it’s part of our growth. And for them as well. And it’s no different this week (with Berry).”
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