If John Dobson had started the season with even a No 1 haircut, he would be bald less than four months into the most challenging period of his coaching career. His DHL Stormers have been hit with an injury list that would have reduced lesser individuals to tears.
Dobson, philosophical as ever, said it was a case of cry or laugh and once that emotion had passed, to get on with it and focus on what is available, give it horns and know that every youngster who gets game time in the Investec Champions Cup or Vodacom United Rugby Championship in December will be better for the experience.
If you had asked Dobson to name his loose-forwards to tame Toulon in last weekend’s Champions Cup opener, this written with the greatest respect and appreciation that two of the three are infants in professional rugby, it would not have been Louw Nel, Marcel Theunissen and Willie Engelbrecht.
Deon Fourie, BJ Dixon and Evan Roos would have been screamed from the top of Table Mountain. Three Springboks, all of different vintage, but none lacking in pedigree.
Never has a Stormers coach had to contend with so many Springboks absent through injury.
Dobson would have spoken of a lock pairing that included Springbok Salmaan Moerat and he would have taken the greatest comfort from starting with World Cup winners Steven Kitshoff at loose head and Frans Malherbe at tight head.
He would then have waxed lyrical about the game-breaking abilities of Damian Willemse and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, two of the most sought-after backs in the global game.
Dobson would have been very confident of a winning start to the Champions Cup and a more favourable league placement in the URC going into the third week of December.
The reality for Dobson and the new Stormers owners has been quite like anything experienced in the club’s history.
I have reported on and analysed the Stormers since their professional launch in 1997, under the guise of the Western Stormers.
Never have 17 frontline players been injured at the same time. Never has a Stormers coach had to contend with so many Springboks absent through injury.
If the Stormers were playing Harlequins in a Cup final at the Stoop in London on Saturday, the following 17 players would not be able to play because of injury or concussion protocols: Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Ali Vermaak, Lizo Goqoboko, Sti Sithole, Brock Harris (props), Scarra Ntubeni (hooker), Ruben van Heerden (lock), Deon Fourie, Evan Roos, BJ Dixon, Keke Morabe (loose-forwards), Manie Libbok, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (flyhalves), Damian Willemse, Ruhan Nel (centres) and Ben Loader (wing).
Bok lock and team captain Moerat has only just returned from a month on the sidelines.
Moerat, so popular in the province and one of the home-grown talents, has been the most unfortunate in being sidelined with a range of injuries, the most concerning a series of concussions.
No coaching staff prepares for 17 crocked frontline players at once.
People have asked me what has gone wrong with the Stormers in that they have lost three matches on the bounce in two different competitions by 10 or less?
Too few have asked how the hell were they so competitive against a Springbok-inspired Sharks in Durban a fortnight ago when the intervention of the TMO cost them a last-minute victory?
For the Stormers to have even been in with a shout against the Sharks with a minute to play says everything about the fight of those currently wearing the Stormers jersey. Many of them may lack the pedigree of the sidelined bigger names, but they lack nothing in desire and heart.
Where they have stumbled or when they have lost; the reality is that they just have not been good enough to win.
That is no shame; the shame would be big name Stormers Test Springboks lacking heart and losing to lesser combinations.
That is not the case with the Stormers.
When the Stormers won the URC in its inaugural year, this was the match 23: Gelant; Petersen, Nel, Willemse, Senatla; Libbok, Jantjies; Kitshoff (capt), Kotze, Malherbe, Moerat, Orie, Fourie, Dayimani, Roos. Substitutes: Venter, Harris, Fouche, Van Rhyn, Pokomela, Xaba, Masimla, Mngomezulu.
When I get asked what has changed from the glory night of the 18-13 URC final win against the Bulls and the 24-14 defeat against Toulon a week ago, the answer is the squad. Just seven of the URC title-winning 23 played against Toulon, four as starters and three as replacements.
Not one title-winning starter from the pack played Toulon.
Perspective ... Please.
The Stormers are doing nothing different than they did before, they just currently don’t have the artillery to get the consistent winning results.
It is about perspective and not emotion.
When Sharks coach John Plumtree was asked about the turnaround in being basement dwellers in the URC to EPCR Challenge Cup winners, his response was ‘My Test Springboks’.
When Bulls coach Jake White was asked about certain improvements, he said: ‘My Springboks’.
Dobson, in March 2025, when all these Boks return from injury, will be asked a similar question. ‘Why are you winning now?’
He no doubt will echo Plumtree and White’s response: ‘My Springboks’.
There is a reason these players are Springboks and there is a reason club teams function better when they are there. It is because they are Springboks and they just happen to be the first cab off the rank.
Perspective must beat emotion when assessing all the South African teams throughout the URC, Champions Cup and Challenge Cup.
And that perspective must beat emotion when analysing the Stormers of 2024 to those URC title winners of ’22.
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