Forwards coach Rito Hlungwani expects props Neethling Fouche and Ali Vermaak to “make a massive difference” to the Stormers scrum when they lock horns with the Vodacom Bulls again at Loftus on Saturday.
Fouche and Vermaak were late injury withdrawals ahead of the first North-South derby earlier this month – apparently after running into each other at training – with Sti Sithole starting at loosehead and double World Cup winner Frans Malherbe at tighthead.
Sithole struggled against Bulls tighthead Wilco Louw, and while many will remember the match for replacement flyhalf Clayton Blommetjies’ late conversion miss, it was the scrum that Stormers coach John Dobson pin-pointed as the big reason they lost.
“They will make a massive difference,” Hlungwani said on Monday when asked about Fouche and Vermaak’s availability for the Bulls rematch. “Sometimes, as much as you’re a good scrummager, if a change happens too late in the week, you haven’t had time to adjust. It was tough on Sti and Frans was in the same position.
“The Bulls have a very strong scrum,” he added. “We’re not the only team that ended up on the wrong side of their scrum. But in saying that, it’s a team that we’ve played a lot in the URC, and we have been in a position where we’ve met them in the scrum, and we have, at times, got penalties against their scrum. So it’s something we’ve worked really hard on, and we are looking to be much better than we were last time.”
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The Stormers have also struggled at lineout time this season, but were much improved in this area against the Lions, winning 86-percent of their own throw.
“I was very happy with it,” said Hlungwani. “Lineouts are probably one of the tougher things to coach in the game as there are so many parts that need to come together. I have to give a lot of credit to Ruben [van Heerden], Salmaan [Moerat] and JD [Schickerling] and those guys.
“There are times when things don’t go well but the key thing is, can we recover and fix it?
“We thought we did well [in the lineouts] against the Lions, but we’re still looking for that consistency and would like to do well against a very good contesting team like the Bulls.”
Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
