Grant: 'We're feeling the excitement'
Wed, 19 May 2010 18:53
Ready to rock Newlands: Stormers flyhalf Peter Grant
Stormers flyhalf Peter Grant speaks with enthusiasm about the skilful ball-carriers outside him and the excellent communication amongst the players.
And he says the Stormers players are enjoying being part of the excitement in Cape Town ahead of Saturday's semifinal clash with the Waratahs.
Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee describes his flyhalf as the team's "unsung hero" but Grant pays tribute to the players around him for making his role as pivot easy.
In an interview after team training on Wednesday, Grant said: "I've got some great runners outside me and the amount of talking that's happening out wide makes my job easy. I've got so many options to play from and the forwards have been giving us some great go-forward ball, so it makes for exciting rugby and we've been scoring some really exciting tries.
"For me this season has been mainly about getting the ball to those outside backs' hands. Bryan [Habana] and Jaque [Fourie] and [Sireli] Naqelevuki and Joe [Pietersen] and Gio Aplon have been having amazing seasons for us. And you've seen a lot of our loose forwards carrying the ball as well so my role has been a catch-and-passer this year. It's been working for us and I'm enjoying it."
Of course, the modest Grant's role has in reality been far greater than that of catching and passing, and he said that decision-making at flyhalf became easier with experience.
"It's starting to come a little bit easier than when I first started out. It helps having guys outside you who are giving you direction as well. There's a lot of talk out there," he said, adding: "With experience you get used to the situation that you're in and judging what kind of ball you're getting - whether it's go-forward or whether we're getting tackled back, but you rely a lot on the guys outside you to give you assistance."
The flyhalf speaks highly of the communication skills of the players around him, but coach Coetzee is liberal in his praise of Grant's ability to communicate.
"People are looking for the flashy things," Coetzee said on Wednesday, "but Peter has done his job very quietly but very effectively. There is no doubt in my mind that Peter's ability to organise the backs has been tremendous. People see him as a quiet guy but he communicates very effectively.
"He's been doing very well also supporting Schalla [Stormers captain Schalk Burger] in terms of strategy on the field and giving direction to our play."
Asked about the team's defensive record - by some way the most miserly in the Super 14 in terms of tries and overall points conceded - and balancing that with skilful attacking play, Grant commented: "It gives you a lot of confidence knowing we can back our defensive systems.
"Our record has been pretty good defensively and I think maybe it was one of our faults last year that we were also a great defensive side but we couldn't put points on the board. You've got to work on that balance. We've worked hard this year to try and get that balance right between attack and defence."
On his role as vice captain, Grant said it had been "easy working under Schalk" and they had worked very well together as regards "communications, the calls, the position on the field - what we want to do to execute".
He added: "Having guys like Bryan and Jaque in the backline to help me, and Fleckie [backline coach Robbie Fleck] - it's been really easy."
With a success rate of over 80 per cent since taking over the goal-kicking when Joe Pietersen was ruled out of the team's Australasian tour with a hip injury, Grant was asked whether he had been giving extra attention to his kicking at training.
"No, surprisingly, not at all. Joe started off the season [as goal-kicker] and I always just trained with him. If anything I've trained less than in previous seasons. I think it's been a confidence thing and when the team plays well everything seems to go your way and it brings out the best in me as well. I've been lucky I think. I don't know what I've been doing differently but I've really enjoyed it and just hope it keeps going the way it has been."
He had injured a foot in 2009 "and Joe Pietersen took over and did really well and thrived. It was quite nice to have that responsibility off my shoulders a bit and work on just playing rugby again".
When the opportunity had come for him to take over the goal-kicking again this season "I was a bit worried at first but in the first two games I didn't miss a kick and I was pretty surprised myself," said Grant.
The kicks close to the posts were not his favourite. "I do tend to get quite nervous for those kicks in front of the poles," he quipped.
On whether he was focussed on adding to his five Test caps for the Springboks, Grant said: "I'm as hungry as any South African. I've had a bit of a taste so I want to get back there."
But his immediate focus this year had not been on playing for the Springboks again but rather on performing well for the Stormers. He recognised that "goal-kicking has been one of my downfalls in the past so I've been working at it to a certain extent and it's really come right this season. It's been going well but it's in the big games when it will really count."
He believed that tactical kicking would be very important this weekend. "The Waratahs have got a great kicking game. Their wings, fullback, their whole backline. It's going to be really difficult to pin them down; it's going to be a key role in this weekend's game."
Though the Stormers pre-season plans had Grant pencilled in at inside centre rather than flyhalf, he is happy with the way things have worked out. "I've made flyhalf my position and I'm happy with the way things are going. We've got a lot of centres now and that's obviously helped with our depth," he commented.
Grant has great respect for the Waratahs backline, saying: "Those guys are really class players. You can't put too much attention on [any one of] them because there are so many of them, They are unpredictable - a guy like Drew Mitchell, you've got to say 'watch his feet', but as much as you say that, he's still going to get around you, so it's really difficult! Obviously as a team we've got to be aware of what they're capable of and that'll hopefully help us out."
Like all the players, Grant is enjoying the enthusiasm and hype in the Western Cape surrounding the Stormers first home semifinal since 1999.
"Cape Town is abuzz," says Grant, "It's exciting. Anywhere you go there are Stormers flags on houses, people driving cars with Stormers flags. It's a good place to be. We're feeling it - the excitement is there, the talk is there and it's such a great thing to be part of. It's fantastic - we're enjoying the moment."
By Len Kaplan