Cape Town - Blue Bulls Rugby Union president Willem Strauss posted on social media yesterday that his team had earned the most scrum penalties in the United Rugby Championship this season.
The 23 penalties placed them at the top of the pile, with 15 on their own feed and eight on the opposition’s. It flies in the face of a perceived weak Bulls scrum, and it was no doubt strategic from Strauss as the Stormers are loaded with an all-Springbok front row of Steven Kitshoff, Joseph Dweba and Frans Malherbe for tonight’s clash at Cape Town Stadium (7.15pm kick-off).
“I’m very happy for them! Scrum penalties are earned, and I’m happy for them. It’s something we also pride ourselves on,” Stormers captain Kitshoff smiled yesterday.
“The set-piece is going to be a massive challenge, scrums and lineouts, and mauling. We are up for the challenge, and looking forward to dishing it out as well.”
But it is the maul that Bulls coach Jake White has also highlighted as one of the Capetonians’ chief weapons. “It’s copy and paste from the last few years. That’s how they scored in the final. Incredible Springbok front row, Bok lineout-caller (Marvin Orie), and Hacjivah (Dayimani) jumps well at the back too. I can’t see them going too far away from that, as it has given them success,” White said.
And Kitshoff feels that the Stormers’ own lineout has been functioning well, even though there were a couple of missed opportunities on attack against London Irish last week.
“I don’t think the lineouts went badly last weekend. I think there were tough calls with the two skew throws, and one well-contested lineout,” said Kitshoff.
“The rest gave us a lot of opportunities to attack from and create some go-forward through the maul, to give our backs some time and space.
“Lineout and maul-wise, it’s a big part of our game and something we back ourselves on, and we work very hard on it during the week. It is a big factor in the game, and the Bulls have a good maul. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us defensively.”
Both teams possess some exciting talents in the backline, with the Stormers’ Damian Willemse, Leolin Zas and Manie Libbok, while the Bulls have Bok speedsters Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie.
But the Stormers will hope their forwards can provide front-foot ball, so the breakdown battle will be immense between Kitshoff and Deon Fourie against the likes of Marco van Staden and Johan Grobbelaar.
“One of their strong passages of play is when they get front-foot ball and keep ball-in-hand, and run pods off No 9 or 10. Then they get the ball out of the back with their momentum,” Kitshoff said.
“Speaking to Norman (Laker, Stormers defence coach) this week, we’ve got a big job this weekend, especially when it comes to stopping their momentum in the middle of the field, and making good reads on the outside.
“There will be opportunities both ways at the breakdowns. Whichever team reacts quickest to the ball and is most accurate will have the most success at the gain-line.”
There will be a South African referee in charge in the shape of AJ Jacobs, and it will be interesting to see whether he is strict in penalising the fetchers or allows more of a contest for possession.
“Both teams have got good stealers, so we will have to see how AJ sees it – the more traditional South African approach, or the URC approach where it is more of a contest,” Stormers coach John Dobson said.
“There has been a bit of a narrowing of the gap, but we will have to see how quickly our stealers are rewarded, and adapt to that as neither side wants to allow easy 22 entries.”
Stormers Team
15 Damian Willemse 14 Angelo Davids 13 Suleiman Hartzenberg 12 Dan du Plessis 11 Leolin Zas 10 Manie Libbok 9 Paul de Wet 8 Hacjivah Dayimani 7 Willie Engelbrecht 6 Deon Fourie 5 Marvin Orie 4 Ben-Jason Dixon 3 Frans Malherbe 2 Joseph Dweba 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain)
Bench: 16 JJ Kotze 17 Ali Vermaak 18 Neethling Fouche 19 Connor Evans 20 Junior Pokomela 21 Marcel Theunissen 22 Godlen Masimla 23 Clayton Blommetjies