Will Stormers run or kick in the rain?

Nic Groom of the Stormers during the 2016 Super Rugby match between the Stormers and the Sharks at Newlands Stadium, Cape Town on 12 March 2016 ©Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix

Nic Groom of the Stormers during the 2016 Super Rugby match between the Stormers and the Sharks at Newlands Stadium, Cape Town on 12 March 2016 ©Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix

Published Jul 23, 2016

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Cape Town - The Stormers are in no doubt that the Chiefs will continue running the ball in Saturday’s quarter-final at Newlands, but what will the Cape side do?

While Chiefs coach Dave Rennie has said that his team “wants to play” no matter the conditions – they will mix it up between ball-in-hand and putting in those long tactical kicks – they aren’t quite sure of what the Stormers are going to do.

It looked like the weather was going to clear up for the 7pm kickoff, but by mid-afternoon, the rain was still coming down fairly heavily in Cape Town, which is likely to result in soggy conditions and a slippery field.

While coach Robbie Fleck has tried to take the Stormers’ game plan to the next level by bringing in some ingenuity on attack to go with the traditional defensive strength, he was cagey about how his players will go about trying to unlock the Chiefs’ defence despite promising the “fearless rugby” that has been the focal point of the Stormers’ narrative in 2016.

Asked if the Chiefs are bluffing when Rennie said this week that “if it rains, we’ll still play”, Fleck said: “I don’t think he’s bluffing, I think they are going to play rugby. If you watched them against the Crusaders in the rain a couple of weeks ago, they certainly did keep ball-in-hand. Their kicking game was a little bit different, but they do keep ball-in-hand.

“The weather doesn’t deter them too much. I like their attitude, to be honest. I think it’s great, and it’s something we’d like to embrace as well. Let’s just see what happens on the weekend – whether we kick or run!”

But while a kicking-based strategy that veered away from their stated attacking approach brought them unexpected success in a league game against the Brumbies, the Stormers will be committing rugby suicide if they try to implement the same plan against the Chiefs.

They just needed to watch the Hurricanes’ destruction of the Sharks in Wellington on Saturday morning to see how not to play a New Zealand team. The Durban side tried to utilise a territory game in wet and windy conditions at the “Cake Tin” and it played straight into the hands of the Canes, who ran them off their feet in a 41-0 demolition – the first time team got blanked in a Super Rugby playoff game.

Canes halfbacks TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett were lethal in how they varied their game, and while there were a number of excellent tactical kicks and chips over the defence, the way the Kiwis held on to the ball was the major difference in the end.

Stormers scrumhalf Nic Groom and flyhalf Robert du Preez will have to drive their team forward, and it doesn’t necessarily always have to be with the boot. They have a number of outstanding ball-carriers around them – centres Damian de Allende and Huw Jones, loose forwards Schalk Burger, Siya Kolisi and Sikhumbuzo Notshe, as well as locks Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

The Stormers will not beat the marauding Chiefs if they kick the ball downfield because of the weather conditions. We all know about how devastating fullback Damian McKenzie is on the counter-attack, but left wing James Lowe is as dangerous and also boasts a massive boot.

Aaron Cruden and Brad Weber are superb playmakers at No 10 and No 9 too, so Groom and Du Preez must take the game to them if the Stormers are to stand a chance of victory.

Maybe Fleck was bluffing when he described his team’s approach, as he was adamant that he didn’t want the Stormers to slow the game down. “We want to increase our intensity. We want to match their intensity, if not better it. We want to go toe-to-toe with these guys – we are certainly not going to (be conservative),” he said.

“We are going to be pretty fearless in our approach, play positive rugby and we certainly don’t want to be slowing things down. We want to play at our pace, and we need to pitch up with the right mindset.”

Teams For Newlands

Stormers:15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Schalk Burger (captain), 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Alistair Vermaak.

Bench:16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Nizaam Carr, 22 Louis Schreuder, 23 Brandon Thomson.

Chiefs:15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Sam McNicol, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Stephen Donald, 11 James Lowe, 10 Aaron Cruden (co-captain), 9 Brad Weber, 8 Tom Sanders, 7 Sam Cane (co-captain), 6 Taleni Seu, 5 Brodie Retallick, 4 Dominic Bird, 3 Atu Moli, 2 Nathan Harris, 1 Kane Hames.

Bench:16 Hika Elliott, 17 Siegfried Fisi’ihoi, 18 Mitchell Graham, 19 Tevita Koloamatangi, 20 Lachlan Boshier, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Toni Pulu, 23 Shaun Stevenson.

Referee: Jaco Peyper.

Kickoff:7pm.

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