The Stormers and Bulls scrums in action during the North-South derby at the Cape Town Stadium earlier this month. Picture: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
The Stormers are aiming for a much improved showing at the scrum when they take on the Bulls in their North-South United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Loftus on Saturday afternoon.
Just a few weeks ago a last gasp conversion attempt from Stormers replacement back Clayton Blommetjies sailed wide with less than a minute left on the clock, giving the Bulls a tight 33-32 win at the Cape Town Stadium.
However, Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson refused to blame the kickers after the game, despite both sides missing crucial shots at goal throughout the match, but chose to focus on their struggles at scrum time, after they were absolutely monstered by the Bulls pack during the game.
The Bulls have one of the strongest scrumming packs in the competition and it is undoubtedly going to be a huge focus point once again in the second North-South derby this weekend.
In the lead up to the game in Cape Town the Stormers lost both props that were set to start that match, Neethling Fouche and Ali Vermaak, who apparently suffered a training ground accident, although forwards coach Rito Hlungwani did not want to elaborate on it.
That led to Sti Sithole stepping in to start and he was destroyed by Springbok tighthead Wilco Louw, while Frans Malherbe also struggled, so it will be a boost as it is expected that both Fouche and Vermaak will be available and they could very well start.
“It did make a massive difference not having Ali and Neethling. Sometimes a change can come so late in the week that you have no time to adjust properly,” explained Hlungwani at a Stormers press conference earlier this week.
“It was tough to have a late change like that and it was particularly tough on Sti, while Frans was in the same position that he was.
“But we set high standards for ourselves when it comes to the scrums and we are always chasing those standards. So they (Fouche and Vermaak) will make a massive difference.”
Despite their recent struggles in the scrums, with them also unable to gain the upper hand in their loss to the Lions at Ellis Park just over a week ago, Hlungwani has backed them to come back stronger and give the Bulls a run for their money.
“Let’s just make it clear straight up before we say anything else that the Bulls do have a very strong scrum. We are not the only team to have ended up on the wrong side of their scrum.
“But we have played them a lot in the first few seasons of the URC and we have had games where we’ve been in position to match them and sometimes we’ve had the advantage over them.
“We have looked at what happened last time and worked really hard on rectifying it and we are looking to be a lot better this time.”
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