John Dobson must make some bold calls to fire up Stormers

Comment by Ashfak Mohamed

There was a weekend online report suggesting that former Lions mentor Johan Ackermann could be drafted into the Stormers’ management team to provide extra support to head coach John Dobson following the past weekend’s 28-17 defeat to Glasgow in Stellenbosch.

The Capetonians are now in 13th place – one below fellow former champions Munster, who saw their coach Graham Rowntree surprisingly step down by “mutual agreement” yesterday – with two wins in five matches, although they have a game in hand.

But the Ackermann rumour has been denied by the Stormers, and rightly so. Dobson has done an exceptional job up to now on and off the field, and has the ‘credit in the bank’ to justify not having to bring in anyone from the outside – unless he wants that himself.

However, while any talk of his position being in danger is highly premature, the Stormers have not been at their best this season for a number of reasons.

But the upcoming four-week international break provides Dobson and his coaching staff time to work on solutions to those problems ahead of their next encounter, against the Sharks in Durban on November 30.

“We are up against it now. Today would have been important for the log and our morale going into the break. We know we aren’t the biggest chequebook team in the league. But we pride ourselves on exceeding the sum of our parts,” Dobson said after the Glasgow game.

But that chequebook from the new Red Disa owners may need to be hauled out to address the loosehead prop situation, where the 39-year-old Brok Harris had to start last weekend due to the injury-enforced absences of Steven Kitshoff, Sti Sithole, Ali Vermaak and Lizo Gqoboka.

A series of other injuries have taken their toll on the team too, with the latest being Damian Willemse and Frans Malherbe even being ruled out of the Springbok November tour, while Ben-Jason Dixon also went off in Stellenbosch.

Dobson will hope that the likes of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Salmaan Moerat, Deon Fourie, Evan Roos, Ben Loader and others will return to action in the coming weeks and months.

But he also needs to make some big selection calls with those players who are fit and able to feature against the Sharks.

The biggest elephant in the room is the form of fullback Warrick Gelant. He displayed his magic once more in setting up Willemse for a try with a dummy and offload at the weekend, but sometimes he just tries too many things that don’t come off.

Gelant is a gifted footballer, so he should not be discarded completely. But perhaps a different role, either at wing or as an impact player off the bench, could help him and the Stormers to settle a bit on attack.

Willemse’s injury – which could keep him sidelined for months – complicates matters in that regard, although Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s possible return will be a welcome boost.

Otherwise, it may require a left-field choice, such as deploying Jurie Matthee, Wandisile Simelane or Jean-Luc du Plessis, or even throw in Western Province Under-21 fullback JC Mars into the deep end.

Suleiman Hartzenberg is an exceptional talent who was unlucky to be on the bench against Glasgow, as he is equally comfortable at wing and outside centre.

With Willemse’s injury, though, Hartzenberg should be back at No 14 against the Sharks, with Ruhan Nel shifting to No 13 again and Dan du Plessis to No 12.

Another big debate is at scrumhalf, where Paul de Wet is the undoubted first-choice halfback. But should Herschel Jantjies be given an opportunity to start against the Sharks? And what about the claims of the two excellent WP Under-21 and Junior Springbok scrumhalves, Imad Khan and Asad Moos?

Keke Morabe is the hard man of the pack and has been prominent with his strong carries, but is he the type of No 8 that the Stormers need? Or should there be more of a ball-player such as Marcel Theunissen at the back of the scrum while Roos is injured?

JD Schickerling and Ruben van Heerden are quite similar in style at lock, so perhaps pairing them with more confrontational No 4s such as Adré Smith and Hendré Stassen might be worth a try as well.

Due to their injury situation, there are no ‘clear and obvious’ solutions to some of the on-field challenges that the Stormers are facing at the moment.

But doing something new may just result in a different outcome. Time is on the Capetonians’ side too in the URC, despite their precarious log position, as there is still a long way to go in the competition.