Partly injuries I suppose, but partly also that the defensive mindset only gets you so far. Attacking and Defending constantly evolve. Coetzee hasn't
Injuries and disruptions are playing a massive role, but the Stormers' defense is still top notch. The Reds had about three quarters of the ball on Saturday and even more of the good ball, yet they were only able to score a single try. The Stormers lost the game because they couldn't build pressure and were absorbing way too much. It was the quantity rather than the quality of the attack that was the problem over the weekend and for most of the season so far.
When considering the Stormers' season so far you have to consider some of the excuses.
- They are going into week eight of their season and playing only their second home game.
- They had their first bye in week one, which is pretty useless. In a fifteen team competition someone will always have a first round bye, but this is then second time in four years that it has been the Stormers.
- Other than the Lions (a games they were truly awful in), they have only lost to really good teams away from home.
- The injury situation is reaching comical proportions. They are without nine locks/blindsides going into this weekend's game, two hookers, three wings/fullbacks. Worrying reports are that a number of players are carrying knock which would have seen them sitting out games, but soldiering forth because they simply have more bodies available (Kolisi, Malherbe, Rhodes (another lock), Groom, De Villiers and Taute).
The excuses only go that far though. The stormers are, and have been for some time, weak in the halfbacks. They have had Grant as their number one flyhalf despite spending half his time in Japan. In terms of back-up they have been using Coleman (who is serviceable) and Van Aswegen (who is horrible). They have also resigned Catrikilis, who is solid, but uninspiring. Meanwhile they have lost their exciting u21 duo of Leyds, to the Force, and Swiel to the Sharks. Neither are necessarily the answer, but a) could not be worse and b) show another general issue with recruitment and retention of players.
Recruitment and retention is a major weakness in the team. Take the situation in the backthree. In the last year they have lost Habana, Van Der Heever and Joe Pieterson overseas. Van Der Heever was actually brought in to replace JJ Engelbrecht who left two years ago for the Bulls. It is going to impossible to keep all their players, but every time someone leaves it seems like they go into crisis mode, there doesn't seem to be system in place of getting the right guys into the junior teams and then backing them to do a job. Devon Williams and Pat Howard have been turning out regularly for the u21 and vodacom cup teams but they rather go looking overseas for emergency cover. Forward planning doesn't seem to be happening at any level within the organisation. Probably the worst example is Willie Le Roux. In 2011 he carved up for Boland, one of the Stormer feeder unions, but instead of signing him they spent resources getting Joe Pieterson back from France.
