Cape Town - Stormers supporters should mark down June 6 and 13 as two dates where they simply can’t afford to have plans that will prevent them from being able to watch their team play.
It’s looking more likely with every passing week that the enthralling race for South African conference honours in Super Rugby will go down to the last two games - probably the last one - and the Stormers are shaping as the team most likely to go into that final phase with the advantage.
The Stormers play the Lions in their penultimate match at Newlands on June 6, and then travel to Durban a week later for what could be a conference decider. So far, the bye weekend has been great for the Stormers.
Although the Bulls pushed them off the top with a bonus point they garnered in defeat against the Blues, and the Lions could well relegate them to third place if they beat the Brumbies on Saturday, Friday’s results have enabled the Stormers to reclaim the strong position they enjoyed before the unexpected away defeat to the Cheetahs two weeks ago.
Although the Bulls faced a tough away tour, that loss to the Cheetahs had placed the Bulls’ fate in their own hands in the sense that if they won all their remaining games, the Stormers wouldn’t be able to catch them regardless of how well they played. The Bulls’ loss in Auckland has changed that, as the Stormers now trail by just one point after the same number of games but have a sequence of three home games to look forward to, while the Bulls continue with a difficult tour.
If the Bulls lose to the Chiefs in Hamilton in their next game, the Stormers will overtake them if they beat the Rebels later in the same weekend. The Stormers’ chances of beating the Rebels were improved by the confidence dent sustained by the Melbourne outfit in their unexpectedly one-sided defeat to the Reds in Brisbane on Friday.
The Lions, who could well top the conference after on Saturday, are also part of the three-way race for the South African conference title, but it must be remembered that after the Brumbies clash they would have played one more game than the Stormers and the Bulls. Their visit to Newlands is their last match of the league phase of the season, so the pressure is on them to ensure that they have a good lead before they come to Cape Town.
For that to happen, it will mean that the Stormers slip up against one, or both, of the Rebels or Cheetahs, a possibility that was probably diminished by the Stormers’ experience of losing in Bloemfontein two weeks ago.
Duane Vermeulen’s men should be more guarded now against the complacency that could make a banana peel out of either fixture.
Presumably it will be in one of those two games that Vermeulen will get his remaining obligatory rest as per the agreement struck between the franchise chief executives and Saru, and Schalk Burger, who needs to rest from two games for the same reason, should also sit out at least one of them.
That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though, for coach Allister Coetzee, who has Michael Rhodes due back from injury shortly, and who has in Nizaam Carr a No 8 who can happily slot into Vermuelen’s place against those teams without it negatively impacting on the team’s chances.
In fact, seeing that the Stormers coaches have in the past at times been pilloried for poor management of players, it should be noted that this year the management of the key resources has been much better. The group has profited from the decision to rest Vermeulen early in the competition as it means he is available for the business end.
The first objective for the Stormers, who have already over-achieved if you look back at pre-season expectations and predictions, will be to win the conference title that ensures automatic qualification for the play-offs. But their chances of winning the main silverware may depend on them finishing in the top two, and thus booking an advance straight into a home semi-final.
The battle for a place in the top two overall is no less intriguing than that for conference supremacy, with the two Australian contenders within three or four points of the three South African challengers with four matches to play.
Indeed, the Stormers might not know who to support when they watch the Lions host the Brumbies on Saturday. It might suit the Stormers better if the Brumbies’ challenge is knocked back, and the Sharks will significantly boost the Stormers’ cause if they upset the Waratahs in Sydney.
The various permutations mean every game played on Saturday has relevance, so while the Stormers aren’t in action, there is good reason to spend a chilly Saturday cuddled up in front of the television. Who said Super Rugby is getting boring?
Weekend Argus