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In February it was announced that current Stormers mentor Allister Coetzee’s contract would not be renewed with the union, and that he would venture over to Japan to coach a team in their domestic competition.
All the Stormers fans, myself included, rejoiced.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no hard feelings toward the man they call ‘Toetie’, after all how could I? Under his supervision the Stormers have been collectively best South African side in Super Rugby since 2011. They have won three Conference titles while the Bulls and Sharks won just one-a-piece in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
In that time the Stormers have featured in no less than three play-off games, with the fourth on it’s way, and they have been second, second, first and third on the overall log during 2010, 2011, 2012 and now 2015. Coetzee’s tenure has seen winning records over all the other South African sides, his overall winning percentage is over 70 percent and his record at Newlands is onwards to 90 percent.
After 11 painful years of winning nothing, Toetie’s Western Province unit has featured in four of the last five Currie Cup finals, and they finally broke the hoodoo in 2012 by winning the trophy before they won it again last year.
All-in-all Toetie has been the best Stormers coach the history of the club. He can actually speak the English language fluently, a trait not too many South African coaches possess and he is by all accounts a pleasant and reasonable man.
He seldom throws Springboks returning from injuries back into the starting team, unlike Naka Drotske for example, and he actually cares for the well-being of his big name players as well as rewarding the rookies who impress.
Coetzee has had a run filled with controversies, but a good run nonetheless. I for one hope he is successful in Japan and I thank him for his service to the Stormers franchise.
With that being said it is time to move on, and Western Province Director of Rugby, Gert Smal, thinks that we desperately need some Australasian input if we are to become a well-rounded side.
The Stormers reportedly sought the signings of either John Plumtree, Ewen McKenzie, Robbie Deans, Eddie Jones, John Mitchell, Nick Mallett or John Dobson as head coach. Of all these names John Mitchell, Nick Mallett and Eddie Jones have been excluded from contention.
It’s an ambitious list of names and I honestly wouldn’t mind either of them taking over the Stormers apart from John Mitchell.
Nick Mallett, who would be my personal choice, turned down the offer citing that he thoroughly enjoys his job as an analyst on SuperSport and he would have to give up his position on the World Rugby board, which he does not want to do.
John Mitchell turned down the offer because of job security and Gert Smal is only contracted until 2017, so there would be no guarantees of Mitchell being retained as the head coach for the allotted period of four years stretching to 2020, however all is good because apparently now he’s the red hot favorite to take over from Gary Gold at the Sharks from next year.
Eddie Jones also turned down the offer because he aims to coach the Japanese national side in the coming years.
This leaves you with only three other candidates in Plumtree, Dobson and McKenzie.
For those of you who don’t know, John Dobson is the head coach of the Western Province under-21 side and he will assume the coaching role of the senior side in this year’s Currie Cup in the absence of Toetie.
Dobson is a good coach who has carried the junior Western Province team very admirably, but the question of whether or not he can make the step up to Currie Cup level remains, let alone at Super Rugby level.
A lot of Australians will have differing opinions over the quality of Ewen McKenzie after his unsuccessful stint as the Wallabies coach, but I for one believe him to be an excellent Super Rugby coach and that he can add a lot to a team like the Stormers, especially when it comes to creative attacking play.
Word has emerged however that former Sharks head coach and current Hurricanes assistant coach, John Plumtree, is the favorite to take over as the Stormers’ main man.
Plumtree is reportedly only negotiating a release from the Hurricanes so that he can pursue a shot at the Stormers. Only time will tell whether or not the Hurricanes still want him by their side after he’s made such a remarkable improvement to the Canes’ forwards.
The main message here is that Smal recognizes the that while the Stormers’ defence is still looking solid, their attack is not good enough to win Super Rugby.
In fact, the Stormers have only secured four bonus points for four tries in the last four years.
In 2012 they failed to secure a single bonus point for tries. In 2013 they managed to bamboozle that year’s finalist, the Brumbies, at Newlands by scoring the fabled four tries and putting almost 40 on the visitors despite having a relatively weak year in 2013.
In 2014 the Stormers managed to whack the Highlanders with four tries at Newlands and in 2015 they managed two bonus point wins against the Waratahs and the Cheetahs. There has been improvement, but not enough.
Before the Stormers versus Lions weekend, the men from the Cape still sat at second place on 43 points. Disregarding the draw on that particular weekend, their 43 points may have deceived their true form.
A lot has been made about the New Zealand Conference being almighty, and to be fair it has been pretty much dominant. They have three teams in the top six, but were the Chiefs and Highlanders that much better than the Stormers? The log showed otherwise.
At that point the Chiefs won one game fewer than the Stormers and the Highlanders won just as many as the Stormers did, the only thing giving them the edge were bonus points and that is the great downfall of the Stormers.
In 2012 they topped the overall log with the Chiefs hanging about with just two points lower than their total. The shocking thing is that the Stormers secured just two bonus points that whole season and both of them were for losing within seven points. Had they secured as many bonus point wins as the Chiefs that year they would have been eight points ahead of the Chiefs.
In 2013 we saw more of the same as the Stormers ended up at seventh despite winning just as many games as the fifth and sixth placed teams. The only thing that stood between them and the play-offs were bonus points. If they had only scored two more they would have faced the Brumbies in Canberra in place of the Cheetahs.
2014 was just horrible and even five bonus point wins would not have saved them, but this year if they had scored as many bonus points as the Highlanders they would have been ahead of them on points.
The Stormers just don’t score enough tries and it gets them every single year.
Nick Mallett made an interesting comment a few weeks ago, that the Stormers are on par with Kiwi sides when it comes to counter-attacking, but they lack the creativity to actually construct tries on their own and this is reflected in their stats.
Western Province scored 45 tries in last year’s Currie Cup and 61 percent of those tries came from counter-attacking off a turnover ball. This year the Stormers have scored 61 percent of their tries off a turnover ball, exactly the same percentage as last year’s Currie Cup.
What most people don’t see is that the Stormers are just as dangerous as Kiwi sides when you will the ball to them. They often score tries when you kick to them, they often score tries when you knock the ball on and they often score tries from their own 22-metre zone when they turn the ball over. They are like the All Blacks on the counter, but they lack All Blacks creativity from structured attack.
An Australasian coach will help them in this regard.
For far too long has Stormers rugby reverted into the typical South African approach of kicking, defending and leeching on opposition mistakes.
Western Province was always known as a union that tries to play the fifteen man game with just that, fifteen men. Smal promised their fans that he would ensure the Cape side revert back to their roots and this seems like a step in the right direction.
I have been an advocate of Australasian coaching ever since I started watching the game. It’s not that I think that South African coaches are mediocre, they are the best in what they do. South African coaches can turn any team’s pack of forwards into effective mongrels who rise to the occasion, especially in the set-pieces.
South African coaches know how to create strong defensive systems, they know how to get the best out of their teams tactically, but the art of genuine attacking rugby has been lost in their pilgrimages and whether we want to admit it or not we need Kiwi and Aussie coaches to help us get back on track in this regard.
South African players are too methodical in their approach to handling the ball. In our circles being able to pass the ball off either hand is the only prerequisite to attacking play, but we disregard the technicalities and manipulation of true ball handling.
We just don’t see South Africans freeing up their arms in contact, we don’t see them supporting the ball carrier when he makes the break, we don’t see quick flicks in interplay from point A to B to C and then back to B.
We run the ball from one side to another, hitting all the chords, but ignoring the pentatonic scale and that is what is fundamentally wrong with our rugby.
The truth is that South African rugby is only one facet away from playing the complete game and we have all the tools to play it.
We already have strong set-pieces, strong kicking and physicality, but we also have the players to play the attacking way, we just don’t use it. Australasian input will help, we’ll develop good linking play and we’ll still retain our traditional strengths. The head coach may be a Kiwi, but those around him are still South African.
I hope I see the day we finally realise how close we really are to challenging the All Blacks.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.