Robbie Fleck made a big effort to point out the contributions of the rest of his management team when he was asked about the impact made by skills coach Paul Feeney to the Stormers’ outstanding win over the Bulls at Newlands last Saturday.
He was right to do so. Pieter de Villiers could feel justifiably proud of the way his scrum dominated the Bulls. Rugby may have changed down the years, but the importance of a big scrumming platform to whatever game you wish to play remains the same.
The Stormers lineout forwards also did well against a tall formation, and in the first half Paul Treu should have been pleased with the line-speed of the defensive system that kept the Bulls’ big ball carriers well in check.
And then there was the invaluable contribution of John Dobson, who has been seconded onto the management team to oversee the all-important breakdowns. That is an area that will be even more crucial once the New Zealand teams come into view later on, but last week was an outstanding start, with the Bulls not knowing what had hit them at the loose-scrums.
Indeed, it would not be inaccurate to say that the Bulls were out-coached as much as they were outplayed, and clearly this was indeed an instant where, as I suggested could be the case in this column on the morning of the game, the nous of the men in the dug-out and what had been worked on in the preparation phase was far more relevant than the names on the team-sheet.
But while Fleck had to emphasise the other coaches and their contribution, for after all they do work together as a team, and there has been a lot of media focus on the New Zealander, Feeney, there can also be no denying where the Stormers have most obviously grown in the off-season.
The Stormers scrum has functioned in the past, or the likes of Frans Malherbe and Steven Kitshoff would not have become Springboks after starting their careers at Western Province, and Eben Etzebeth would not have been a Bok either were this the first time he had performed well in the lineouts.
Nope, where the most radical change has come has been the upskilling of the players when it comes to the fundamentals of running, catching and passing, which made it possible for the Stormers to play the game at a much quicker pace than they had previously. It was there that the Bulls were left for dead as much as any area, and while on the subject of tempo, conditioning coach Stef du Toit deserves huge credit.
During an informal chat with Fleck after the post-match press conference last week I suggested he play a video of matches played in 2016 at the same time as he watched a rerun of last Saturday’s game. My bet is it wouldn’t take long to spot a noticeable difference between the two. They might just look like they came from a different age.
It’s not just the pace the Stormers are now able to play at, but the almost faultless way they passed and handled. They’ve clearly got the fundamentals of the attacking game right, and it was noticeable that there were very few knock-ons and passes that went behind the players, something that has been a big blight for the Stormers in their attempts to attack in the past.
Indeed, it was telling that there was a massive groan from the crowd when Bongi Mbonambi knocked on a pass in the second half. Mistakes had just been so rare, and it might well have been the first one from the Stormers in the match, so when it happened it was so unexpected.
It was the upskilling of the Stormers that prompted Nick Mallett to say they reminded him of a New Zealand team. I agree, and though they allowed the Bulls to escape with more respectability than they should have because they released the pressure in the second half, they do appear to have found what I has long been regarded as the missing link - someone in the management that can provide the dynamic that would come from a Kiwi coach.
Which begs the question in this week where Allister Coetzee has been given the green light to continue as head Bok coach - when are the decision makers at national level going to see the light that WP director of rugby Gert Smal did and appoint a Kiwi into the Bok management?
What Feeney has managed at the Stormers comes through having time to implement and oversee repetitive drills, and time is something that Bok coaches don’t really have in the same supply as Super Rugby coaches do. But the SA Rugby response to the Bok crisis has been disappointing and unimaginative, and the addition of Franco Smith, who was there on the abject failure that was the last end-of-year tour, does not go far enough.
Sure, if Brendan Venter does indeed arrive he amounts to more than just a defence coach, but what the Boks are missing has been obvious for a long time. WP have spotted what is needed, and it is high time national management did the same.