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It was a chastening afternoon for the Stormers against Harlequins on Sunday as the previously unbeaten URC leaders were handed a 60 point thrashing by the English PREM strugglers. Stormers head coach John Dobson called the experience ‘humiliating’ but staunchly defended his team selection for the match, insisting it was not a weakened team.
So, if this wasn’t a simple case of a B team getting its comeuppance, what went wrong for the South African giants at the Stoop?
The only place to start is a shocking and totally unexpected defensive capitulation. In the URC the Stormers are averaging a staggering 1.4 tries conceded per game – on a different planet to most PREM sides, who these days concede 4 tries without raising an eyebrow. After the game, Dobson said that Nick Mallet had texted him ‘if you’re going to lose your unbeaten record, do it in style’ – although when it comes to style this was more Zoolander than Kate Moss from the Cape Town men.
Harlequins visited The Stormers 22m 15 times and scored 9 tries – a freak statistic, particularly against an opposition who have won just 9 of their last 27 games in the league and whose own fans have referred to them as lacking both confidence and identity.
Despite his joviality when facing the media, it was clear Dobson was deeply hurt by what he saw; at full time, he rested his head on the desk in front of him and stayed up in the stands long after his assistant coaches returned to the dressing room, composing his thoughts in solitude. By his own admission, Harlequins beat them at their own game, dominating in the physicality stakes. 13 dominant hits from Quins and nearly 4 post contact metres per carry was not something anyone expected to see. In the aftermath, Alex Dombrant could not keep the smile off his face as his spoke of his side facing down the most fearer pack in club rugby this season. This spoke to the psychological edge of the game – how confidence drained from one side and transferred to the other.
More Stormers problems were present in the most basic of areas: missing tackles. Tackle success percentage is a dubious stat at the best of times but 61% is a terrifyingly low figure in any context. Worst of all, though, is the 16 line breaks conceded. This shows that, by the end of the game, the defensive fight that had characterised the Stormers’ season so far had completely evaporated.
The stats provided by Opta Analyst reveal how the Stormers have one of the clearest identities in club rugby: they use their set piece, they don’t play in their own half, and they strike fast – over 70% of tries from first phase. However, as they found themselves 19, 26, 33 down inside the first half an hour thanks to 1 or 2 bounces of the ball which fell perfectly for Quins and perfectly-imperfectly for them, the players forgot themselves and began to play to Harlequins’ tune. The phase count went up (90 total rucks is unbelievably high for this side) and they played with 45% of their possession in their own half.
What’s more, with each of those rucks came an opportunity for Harlequins to pilfer Stormers’ ball, which they did with alarming ease; 11 turnovers won is an incredible return. Is that because men from Cape Town aren’t rehearsed in protecting the ball for long drawn-out phase attacks? Dobson refuted that Quins had exposed an underlying issue with his side, saying it was just a bad day at the office. Whether or not that is true will surely be tested in forthcoming games by opposition who look to use the same trick.
When it comes to the bad decision making that lead them down the garden path where the Quins were eagerly awaiting in ambush, uncomfortable questions must be asked of fullback Warwick Gelant, who was never far from the scene of a Stormers error. He carried the ball 15 times in the game and kicked it just once – not the controlled leadership his team needed from a 30-year-old with 13 Springbok caps and nearly 140 topflight appearances.
The Stormers did at least have the better of the set piece battle, able to win scrum penalties and steal line-out ball whilst their own throw only went astray once from 16 attempts. Damian Willemse did what he could, carrying the ball a match high 17 times but mostly being met by double shots from defenders who always knew he was getting the ball. The captain was visibly crushed in the press conference but refused to accept the excuses offered to him by journalists. He will want to make amends next time out.
When asked if the players will want to move on from this game quickly, the two-time world cup winning Springbok shook his head – they will deep dive this game, learn from it, and not hide from the mistakes they made. When they said they were humiliated they truly meant it, and champions don’t let go of that type of hurt easily.
