Grant's focus: Momentum not vuvuzelas
Thu, 27 May 2010 09:40
Focussed: Stormers flyhalf Peter Grant - Pic: Doug Fitz-Gerald
Stormers flyhalf Peter Grant has far bigger concerns on his mind ahead of Saturday's Super 14 Final at Orlando Stadium than the loud sound of vuvuzelas when he is kicking at goal.
And he believes team momentum, starting with the forward battle up front, will be crucial rather than one-on-one contests between the players.
The Stormers pivot will be looking to his forwards to provide front-foot ball for the backs so that he can unleash the pace outside him and to allow the halfbacks time and space to kick tactically accurately. And while the team are focusing on countering the Bulls strong gainline breaking and accurate kicking game, and on curtailing errors, loud noise holds no fears for him.
Vuvuzelas are banned at Newlands but were blown continuously during last weekend's semifinal between the Bulls and Crusaders in Soweto, and will feature again on Saturday.
Speaking after Stormers training on Wednesday, Grant - respected by team-mates and opponents alike for his composure under pressure - said he'd had "chirps all week about the vuvuzelas" but Saturday's noise at Orlando Stadium would not put him off his game. "It [the final] was going to be loud, wherever it was. Newlands was loud on the weekend. It might be a different noise but hopefully I'll be able to handle it!"
Grant does not see the final as a halfback contest between Dewaldt Duvenage and himself for the Stormers and Fourie du Preez and Morné Steyn for the Bulls, or a flyhalf battle between Steyn and himself. He said Du Preez and Steyn are a great combination, but "it's really going to be up to the forwards; how we play all depends on getting nice ball from them".
"We've got good momentum the way things have been going and we'd like to keep it that way, but man-on-man opposition - you can't really look at it like that," said Grant, adding: "I just hope we get some good ball. It's going to be big battle up front - two really big physical packs."
He had enjoyed his halfback combination with Duvenage and hoped the quality of ball they got on Saturday would allow the Stormers to gain momentum and use their possession well. "Dewies and I have been working great this whole year. It's been great working with him so hopefully the experience we've gained through this season will take us through the weekend," said Grant.
With the Stormers holding their captain's run at home on Friday before flying to Johannesburg, the players will have a walk around the Orlando Stadium ground on Friday without training there, but Grant said this was no problem. "A lot of our games we haven't been able to have our captain's run at the actual venue, so at this level we should be able to handle that."
The Stormers vice captain said there was real determination amongst the players to win on Saturday. "We were always compared to the side of 1999 but now we're writing our own history. It's just great to be part of. We have achieved yes, but we've tried to put that behind us and concentrate on the next job we have at hand, and that's up north."
He agreed that the Bulls had played impressively in their semifinal. "They don't hold back. They come out firing," said Grant.
"The backs got some good front-foot ball from those forwards of theirs, but at the same time they really capitalised on the mistakes from the Crusaders. A few loose balls...they pick them up and they can run the full length of the field and score tries out of nothing. They've got some really quick men out wide. Zane Kirchner has had a great season and Francois Hougaard out wide is really strong and physical so we've got to make sure when we tackle them we get them down."
But the Stormers had superb strike power in their backline as well and Grant is keen to get them into the game. "Everyone wants to get their hands on the ball. We've got electric players out wide. We've got pace to burn so it's going to be a great contest between two very good backlines".
Grant expects the gainline battle to be intense. "We all saw Pierre Spies last weekend. Wynand Olivier is another one who really gets 'go-forward', really gets over the advantage line comfortably, so it's going to be a big battle, its's going to be tough. We've really got to get ourselves up for that to try and stop that. There are going to be some sore bodies on Sunday, no doubt."
Teams playing against the Bulls must expect to be put under pressure from their accurate kicking game, as the Crusaders found to their cost in the semifinal. "We expect pretty much the same thing and we've just got to try to handle that onslaught, those up-and-unders, all those kicks," said Grant.
But he said the Stormers back three - Joe Pietersen, Bryan Habana and Gio Aplon - had been great in the air the whole season and in general play the Stormers would continue to "get a loose forward back there".
"The biggest thing for us will be workrate to make sure we get back to support and help those guys."
The Stormers expect the usual strong onslaught from the Bulls from the kick-off. "You've got to be able to handle that. The Crusaders did that to us at Newlands and we handled that one very well so hopefully we can gain from that experience. We've got to be very disciplined with the errors we make - to make sure we don't give them easy points or scoring opportunities in the first couple of minutes."
"It's going to be two very good sides, very clinical," Grant concluded. "It could be the bounce of the ball that gives us the final result - let's hope it bounces for us!"
By Len Kaplan