Stormers coach John Dobson says they’re going to have to be more pragmatic on attack in their Super Rugby derby against the Bulls on Saturday (kick-off 5.15 pm).
It’s the Bulls’ kicking game and the serious distance flyhalf Morne Steyn can put to his kicks that has the Stormers wary.
In their Super Rugby-opener against the Sharks last week, Steyn did well to control the game, despite their loss, and his boot also factoring into the scrappy contest.
“The way Morne can kick distance and contestables is a real threat,” Dobson said. “You would have seen during training, that’s the whole thing we’ve been prepping for, the distance kicks.
“As Stormers and Western Province we sometimes get sucked into trying to run too much of that back because we get seduced by what we see as a chase line a little bit further off and we’ve got steppers who want to have a go, and I think we can’t get seduced into that this week. We have to be a bit more pragmatic about how we attack.
“What was nice last week was our dominance in territory and that’s what we need to do.”
Dobson also added that he is expecting a much tougher battle at the scrum this weekend. In their 27-0 whipping of the Hurricanes in their opener, the Stormers shined at scrum-time. But it’s a department that the Bulls know how to operate as well and although the Stormers have more than enough power in both their starting front-row and their back-up they have on the bench, Dobson is expecting this encounter against the Bulls pack to be anything but easy.
“Trevor Nyakane and Lizo Gqoboka against Kitsie (Steven Kitshoff) and Frans (Malherbe), if those two start for us I think there’ll be a lot of pride at stake there.
“They’re all great props. We’ve got a plan, but I think it’ll be a lot tighter for us at scrum-time than it was last week. We don’t expect quite the same return against the Bulls as we got against the Hurricanes. I think it’s going to be harder work for us this week.
“It won’t be quite the forward dominated thing it was last week. Juandre Kruger is a tough competitor and a very good maul defender. We expect a much tighter forward battle, so will have to adjust.”