'Little things' needed to help Stormers profit better from their forward dominance

After the 29-21 win over the Dragons in their 13th round Vodacom URC clash in Cape Town, the DHL Stormers’ post-match wash-up appeared to follow a familiar theme - their coach John Dobson felt they were “seduced by space” and there was again criticism of them over-playing.

And to be straight about it, all of that was understandable given that for the second week in a row the Stormers’ pack turned in a mammoth performance.

Their forward dominance and the number of Stormers entries into the Dragons 22, could easily have brought another 40 points to add to the 29 they scored.

However, while acknowledging that missing out on scoring opportunities would be costly “in the big games to come”, attack coach Dawie Snyman doesn’t appear to be losing too much sleep over it and believes there are just little things that need to be done to get the team capitalising more on the dominance created by the big men and being more clinical.

“We weren’t accurate enough, and will need to be better than that in some of the big matches we are set to play, but it is also encouraging for us (that we are creating so many scoring opportunities,” said Snyman.

“I would rather sit here with 10 opportunities missed than sit here with only one having been created the whole game. We did create a lot of opportunities, and it was similar to the game we played against the Bulls a couple of weeks ago. I am not talking about the game at Loftus, but the one against them at home (in January). It’s our options, our skill execution and timing that we need to fix, but we are not talking about big things that need to be done. It’s little things.”

What isn’t little is the shift being put in by the Stormers forwards, something that in his role as backline coach Snyman says he is very appreciative of.

“It gives us a little bit of extra time to play, when you are getting the ball on the front foot you don’t have to run around quite as much,” he said.

“The set-piece has been massive for us. Credit must go to the players, they put in the hard work every week. It gives the backs time and space and now we need to reward that by making the right decisions.”

SENATLA SIDELINED

One player who won’t be there to help the Stormers be more clinical when they face Edinburgh at the DHL Stadium on Saturday is wing Seabelo Senatla.

The former Blitzbok star made his return after a long layoff in the win over the Dragons but was forced off with a calf injury.

“I think it is a grade 2 calf injury so Seabelo will be out for a few weeks. Otherwise we have a clean bill of health,” said the Stormers attack coach.

The Stormers team will be announced on Friday and it will be interesting to see what head coach John Dobson comes up with as recent performances and returns from injury have given him extra options.

That is particularly so at the back, with Dan du Plessis having started against the Dragons at inside centre, where Damian Willemse had played the previous week.

Du Plessis fitting back into his old No 12 jersey enabled Willemse to play at fullback, where he has played most of his rugby for the Springboks, but Snyman said that didn’t mean it was going to be the selection going forward.

“We will take it on a week for week basis, depending on availability and injuries, as well as how much game time players have had. We thought we’d give Warrick (Gelant) a rest last week, and Wandi (Wandisile Simelane) has also had a lot of game time lately so we could select around that,” said Snyman.