It is not often that the losing coach is the happier one in the post-match press conference.
But this was exactly the case following the last Neo-Africa Tri-series warm-up games between the Stormers and the Sharks at Newlands.
From the stands, the Sharks won every aspect of the game but on the scoreboard with the Stormers ending the stronger of the two teams scoring 2 converted tries in 8 minutes to win by one point.
By this stage however both teams made a mountain of substitutions and where the Stormers seemed to be galvanized by the changes, the Sharks lost structure, and one could say discipline.
John Plumtree was quite blunt in his assessment responding to the first question he was asked whether such a last minute loss meant anything.
“No,” was his simple answer.
A standard response from the losing coach in a warm-up match, which does mean little, but just from the conviction in which he said it, you really had the feeling that Plumtree and his charges got exactly what they wanted from this game.
In contrast, Allister Coetzee and Andries Bekker bemoaned their side’s discipline, lack of structure, and adapting to the referee on the day.
Practice matches, and a tournament like the Neo-Africa Tri-series, are designed to help coaches prepare their teams, and answer some questions they have in the back of their minds.
This leaves one with the question on which coach approached this series correctly, and given the reaction following the final match in the series, you would have to imagine that the scoreboard winners, the Stormers who won both their matches, were in fact, the biggest losers.
Both the Sharks and Lions will carry more confidence and momentum into the first round of the Super 15 proper. More importantly, I believe the Stormers now have more questions than what they would have had before this series kicked off.
Being bored out of my mind in the first 10 minutes of the presser where Neo-Africa and their partners, FNB, chatted to the media about their role and motivation in sponsoring such a series, I actually came to realise that the Stormers, hosting this tournament, are putting unnecessary pressure on themselves where winning on the scoreboard becomes more important than what should be learned from such matches due to the public pressure from playing at home.
Coetzee will use their last warm-up match against Boland this weekend to satisfy some mathematical formula he has by giving most of his players a minimum of 120 minutes pre-season game time, but I fear he and his management missed a trick.
400 minutes of pre-season game time will not benefit a team if it is not used to effectively test structures and combinations where a worthless ‘win’ is seemingly the goal.
I must be honest , i dont see much good in these matches. In contact practice between the squad there is better result. The Bulls went to Mmbombela to show off their talent to the fans over there, everyone enjoyed the outing and they partied all the way home. But i can guarantee you today the hard work started.
Last year the Bulls looked s$%t in this games and me and GBS comforted ourself in the thought of the previous years even worse prelims by the Bulls. You all know what happened in those 2 years.
I tend to agree with Plum… untill specially Meyer Bosman & Stefan Terblanche was replaced, the Sharks had the better of most facets of play, except the lineouts where Bekker & Co were very dominant.
I would not worry too much about the lineouts though if I was a Shark, which I’m not luckily, because the Sharks were missing Sykes, Hargreaves and that long-haired fella… damnnnnn his name escapes me now (he was with WP then overseas and now with the Sharks).
For a change the Sharks midfield combined well on attack and defence, the forwards had dominance, Mvovo went extremely well on the left wing, JP did OK on the right wing and old Oddone did well standing in for Ludik at fullback.
I woulld worry about Lambie’s wayward goal kicking abilities and maybe Meyer Bosman should brush up his kicking again and take over those duties, he’s not a shabby kicker to posts.
Charl McLeod shone at scrummie whilst Ricky Januarie was pathetic. Soon as Dewaldt Duvenage came on for the Stormers, things started happening, all of a sudden.
On Stormers side there was not much to write home about…. let me rather concentrate on where they showed weakness…
Bryan Habana looks like the prima-donna has been overtaken by Mvovo and Bjorn Basson, Januarie was plain crap and the youngsters who stood in at Openside and Blindside flanks were very average. Gary van Aswegen made simple schoolboy mistakes and Lionel Cronje as well as Elgar Watts both kooked better in all aspects of play.
I thought Duane Vermeulen had a good hard game, Bekker did well in the lineouts but did not offer much more than that, Juan de Jongh was industrious… and Dewaldt Duvenage made a massive change.
But, all that said, it was only a warm-up…. the proof of the pudding is when the real comp starts.
Sug……. Nog ‘n Stormer-bashing artikel.
‘n Span wat so oorheers het soos die
Sharks moes tog seker maklik gewen het?
Looks at the scoreboard?
Wie’s die onoorwonne span wat in die tri-series?
3@ Rugbyprof:
Stadig nou, Morne Pissmier wat hierdie Artikel geskrywe het, is self ‘n Stormers Ondersteuner.
@ Rugbyprof:
Ek se maar net “i would rather win ugly” as om te verloor. Die grootste bubbels wat gaan bars die jaar……
Make your pick
Lions
Sharks
Bulls
Stormers
Cheetahs dink ek nie het n bubble nie.
maak nie saak of jy in die laatse 15, 10 8 of 2 minute wen nie, ‘n wen is ‘n wen…
Laas jaar was die uitslae in die NATS dieselfde gewees. Stormers 2, Sharks 0, en ons almal onthou wat vandaar af gebeur het…
Met betrekking tot die “opbou” na die Super 15, en om die opwarmings games te gebruik as kans om diepte te toets, het ek gedink dat dit meer die Stormers was as die Sharks wat dit met hul begn spanne gedoen het… terwyl die Sharks hul beste moontlike span ingstuur het met beserings en al, was dit bv NIE die Stormers se beste beskikbare 6, 7 & 8 nie, asook nie hul beste skakel paar… en waarookal ek lees hoor ek net “by die afbreek punt gedomineer” “nie kreatief op die aanval.
Maar ja… ek dink dit begin tog als by AC… ons almal weet dat hy welgesproke tog eerlik en hard is, met ‘n hoe standaard van sukses. So natuurlik is dit maklik om die span te krittiseer as die afrigter dit dan self doen. Maar so bietjie insig en perspektief, en ons sien dat die uitslag dalk net die laaste skop in die ballas was om die Stormers finaal wakker te maak!
Sal steeds ‘n BAIE goeie jaar wees!
@ Greenpoint-Gunner: sorry rear gunner but you got that wrong
like the stormers the sharks too were without many players,jannie, smitty , sykes , hargreaves, skeate, deysel, ludick, in the first few min we lost mostert , that means we had to play without our 4 first choice locks, burden went left the field injured within the first 8 min, need i go on??
here is a fact your full team got thrashed by the sharks a few months ago , and the sharks even then were without a few first choice players
a game of rugby my friend is won upfront first and formost, so morne is 100 % correct in his article, but hey mate whatever floats ur boat , i remember listening and reading here in cape town how the sharks not only had no chance of winning the cup , but basically didnt deserve to be on the same field of play as the mighty weepee, need i ask for the result??????????? lol
see my friend its warm up games it counts for nothing come feb 19, even the bulls loss to the spears people were crowing ?? it meant ZERO
we know the bulls and sharks will be there on the top , and yes i believe the stormers too, even if we won on saturday on the scoreboard last saturday , i would feel no different
but if you want to be honest with yourself ?? the sharks destroyed the stormers up front , and that without 6 of their first choice forwards
all i can say is in a game of importance?? plum would not be making those substitutions, and again dont come with the, THE SHARKS PLAYED WITH THEIR BEST POSSIBLE TEAM
An absolute useless article, and a pointless debate.
Practice games mean NOTHING.
The Stormers won by one point. Stormers were shit for 70 minutes. Sharks were shit in not putting them away.
Stormers won their 2 games, Sharks won…. ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suck it up Skaamhaaie! Julle het VERLOOR! Hahahahahahahahaha! The records will show 17-16, not 17-16 (but…..). 17-16, 17-16, 17-16, 17-16.
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@ sharky_forever:
“it meant ZERO” mmm, I’m pretty sure thats how Plum and all Sharks supporters felt round about this time last year.
a win is a win is a win is a win is a win is a win… is a win!
hi guys
i think morné summed this up correctly by saying that the losing coach WERE most propably the happier one afterwards … i think that most guys would agree that scores at this stage (and who actually won) doesnt actually matter … what most coaches want to get out of the game, is test new combinations, have a look at depth, have a look at your structures under match conditions etc etc etc.
…
i would say from the above, that the sharks mustve been the happier side
BUT
in all honesty … the stormers were pisspoor in almost every part of their game ….
sooooooooooooo
i’d be hesitant (if i were the sharks) to take too much out of this game … just as a pisspoor sharks team (against the lions) could turn everything around within a few days,
so this stormers side will be much better in all departments come their first game in the s15.
greenpoint @ 9
dont be like that … you may give the wrong people the impression that the stormers doesnt win much/ or dont win a lot of trophies!! 😀
Mmmmmmm,
From Rugbyprof and Greenpoint Tailgunner’s side it appears that the Stormers have won the Super Rugby Competition…. by 1 point…
Come on gentlemen, a little honesty about Saturday’s performance won’t affect your life… and for fark’s sake, like Morne said and Ashley reitterated, it was a simple warm-up match with a big number of starting players out in both sides and a lot of subs coming on in the last 20 minutes.
Mens sou sweer julle kry ‘n boner oor die niksseggende flippen wen!
Is it a cultural thing or why does it always seem that some Stormers supporters start celebrating at the beginning of the Super Rugby Competition every year in stead of when it matters?
The Stormers won the game… but the Sharks will be happy with the systems they put in place during the game and how it worked for them before substitutions were made…. simple as that.
@ Ashley:
@ grootblousmile:
Hey we got the people talking and debating which is why I write this stuff.
But Ash yeah, as a Stormers supporter I am concerned about a couple of things.
First off, our halfbacks are not putting any pace on the ball, i.e. attacks with ball in hand is snuffed behind the advantage line.
It is now too late to consider playing Cronje at 10, and out of all 3 candidates outside of Peter Grant, Cronje is the only one that can cover 10 and 15 which makes him, in my view more valuable.
Coetzee is now stuck with Van Aswegen (a rookie) and Watts (a new recruit) as back up to Grant, while Cronje who was an age-group flyhalf and player of the year when he was and being in the Stormers/WP system now for 2 years, will again feature for the Vodacom Cup side this year.
I eluded to the lack of planning and experimenting by Coetzee in this article and this highlights it perfectly. If Cronje was not going to be given time now, he will not be given that ever. We already lost Hoffman because of a similar situation and looking at our scrumhalf options in Januarie and Duvenhage, both average (and overrated) it really saddens me to see this.
Apart from that, discipline was a real concern.
Does that mean that outside Jean and Schalk we have no leaders to control the team and players? Concerning.
Most concerning, is that the Stormers were absolutely smashed in contact. It was not our first choice players true, but these guys will have to be called on at some stage of the Super 15, and if they are not up to it, then I am concerned.
Our front row is a concern for me too. Never quite rated CJ and that was re-affirmed on Saturday.
Not one driving maul worked on Saturday, a strength of the Stormers last year, so I stick by my conclusion to this article, there are more questions than answers and most importantly, I see nothing new (progress) from the Stormers from last year to now.
I am struggling to take one positive out of the two matches other than they got some contact practice.
morné
agree with you …. i am also concerned about the way the sharks dominated the contact area … if it was only this game, i wouldve make it off as a team that never pitched for this particular game,
but
unfortunately, that was also the area the sharks dominated in the cc final!!
..
on the cronje issue … not sure whats going on there, but he’s suddenly been overtaken by two other flyhalves … hope he gets gametime against boland though
but
he wouldve been better off with significant gametime against either the sharks or lions
Bedaar kêrels, die s15 begin eers oor twee weke.
O ja, Supersport het my toe geantwoord oor hoekom hul al die Stormers se oefenwedstryde uitsaai en nie die Bulle s’n nie. Hulle sê: die Stormers gaan mos 2 wedstryde minder as die Bulle speel die einde van die seisoen ….. 😀
@ bdb:
😆 😆
ben_die_bliksem @ 15
😆
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