CAPE TOWN -With the acquisition of skills coach Paul Feeney, the Stormers have placed a lot of emphasis on skills development, and Robbie Fleck is keen to see how much progress his team have made in this regard when they face the Lions in their last pre-season friendly at Newlands on Saturday.
And who better to measure themselves against than South Africa’s attacking front-runners?
The 2016 Super Rugby finalists were undoubtedly the standout South African team when it came to attacking play, with their players, from backs to forwards, showing a great appreciation for skills, be it handling, running or attacking kicks and offloads.
It’s a route that the Stormers also set out to follow last year, and although they made a few strides in terms of expansive play, the Cape side has upped the intensity since Feeney, former Blues skills guru, landed on South African shores.
And Fleck is confident the Stormers have improved in the skills and conditioning departments since their last Super Rugby campaign. “We’ve worked incredibly hard and invested a lot of time into our skills development and our conditioning, and certainly in both (warm-up games against the Cheetahs and the SWD Eagles) there was enough evidence there, and I can see it in training,” he said.
“It’s been a major focus for us, but it’s not going to happen overnight. We’re going to keep working incredibly hard on it. You know, we can’t go from one extreme to the other, but I think there was enough evidence in last year’s performances of the way we wanted to go, and this is just a step up in terms of that. We’ve always wanted to go in this direction, so this weekend will be a real test.”
Now, of course, he wants to see exactly how far they’ve come.
The Stormers chief also acknowledged that skills training hasn’t been very high on the priority list of South African teams in the past, and said that the Stormers were looking to build on the performances they produced over the past two weeks, which saw them bag massive victories against the defending Currie Cup champions in Harare and the Eagles in George
“Like Paul said earlier in the year - there’s certainly no doubt that South African rugby players have all the skill in the world; it’s just a matter of us focusing more on them, which we’ve probably neglected to do in the past.”
“There are certain goals that we’ve set the squad for this game. In the last two games we were able to tick some of these boxes and we’re certainly looking to do that now (today),” Fleck added.
Meanwhile, the Johannesburg side didn’t hold back and named a first-choice line-up for the Newlands clash, with attacking maestro Elton Jantjies leading the Lions pack in the absence of Warren Whiteley, who has had his wisdom teeth extracted and has not recovered in time for the fixture.
Star performers like Jantjies, hooker Malcolm Marx, lock Franco Mostert, scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, wing Courtnall Skosan and centres Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Howard Mnisi have all been included in the run-on side, while new guys like Bulls recruit Marvin Orie and wing Madosh Tambwe are also in the starting line-up.
But Johan Ackermann’s strong selection (and of course that attacking flair) is a “test” that Fleck believes can only do the Stormers good.
“If you look at this Lions squad it’s fairly first choice, which is good. They were the best attacking side in Super Rugby last year and can up the intensity and the pace, pretty much like what we faced against the Chiefs last year. So it’s a good match-up for us to see where we are.”
And it’s a good thing that Fleck is so enthusiastic about facing ‘Chiefs-like’ competition today because, come the Super Rugby season, the men in blue and white will have to go head to head with the real deal.
Teams for Newlands:
Stormers: Juarno Augustus, Nizaam Carr, Jaco Coetzee, Juan de Jongh, Dan du Plessis, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Rob du Preez, Dewaldt Duvenage, Rynhardt Elstadt, JC Janse van Rensburg, Cheslin Kolbe, Siya Kolisi, Dan Kriel, Dillyn Leyds, Wilco Louw, Frans Malherbe, SP Marais, Bongi Mbonambi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Caylib Oosthuizen, Ramone Samuels, JD Shickerling, Chris van Zyl, Jano Vermaak, EW Viljoen, Cobus Wiese, Damian Willemse, Eduard Zandberg, Leolin Zas.
Lions: 15 Jaco van der Walt, 14 Madosh Tambwe, 13 Howard Mnisi, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies (captain), 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Fabian Booysen, 7 Ruan Ackermann, 6 Cyle Brink, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Franco Mostert, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 Andries Ferreira, 20 Lourens Erasmus, 21 Robert Kruger, 22 Jaco Kriel, 23 Victor Sekekete, 24 Dillon Smit, 25 Andries Coetzee, 26 Harold Vorster, 27 Antony Volmink, 28 Jacques Nel, 29 Sylvian Mahuza
Kick-off: 3 pm