Stormers await 'emotional' Cheetahs
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:39
No emotion: Stormers boss Rassie Erasmus
While Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber's move from Bloemfontein to Cape Town may still be an emotional issue for some in the Free State, it's all in the past for the Stormers.
After great success previously in the Free State, Erasmus is overall in charge of the Stormers and all Western Province teams as Senior Professional Coach and Nienaber is the Stormers defence coach.
Erasmus enjoys great respect at all levels of rugby in his Western Cape domain and Nienaber's success as defence coach is proven by the Stormers having conceded only four tries, and a total of only 51 points, in five matches this season.
Speaking after Stormers training at their High Performance Centre in Bellville on Wednesday, head coach Allister Coetzee said: "There's a lot of emotion, I suppose, from the Cheetahs side.
"We put emotion aside. We put the past aside and focus on where we are now as a group of players and where we want to be in this competition.
"We've got to do what we know best and forget about the periphery stuff and not allow emotions to come into this at all."
The coach added: "I have huge respect for the Cheetahs. They are such a quality side; they've proven many wrong and they're on form at this stage of the competition."
On the challenge facing his team, Coetzee said: "They [the Cheetahs] try to get very quick ball at breakdown in order to use their pace on the outside. It'll be a challenge for our defence. We've got to make sure we don't give them ball on the front foot, that they get no ball on a platter. The advantage line battle is going to be tough."
Coetzee said the Stormers were still trying to improve in every area of their game. "We haven't put together the perfect game yet," he quipped.
The team would keep backing their systems and keep trying to improve their execution in every game. He said that if the team focussed on their set piece, stuck to their kicking system and defended well, the results would come.
Asked about the expected hard scrummaging contest, Coetzee said the Cheetahs had a good scrummaging pack and the Stormers forwards' coach Matt Proudfoot had a plan for the game.
Opposition teams had experienced problems with the number of reset scrums against the Cheetahs and the coach hoped that the referee - Chris Pollock of New Zealand - would sort that out on Saturday
Asked about the Stormers great success with driving mauls from line-outs, captain Schalk Burger said that the Stormers and Cheetahs packs both pride themselves on their driving mauls and he expected a good contest this weekend.
Burger said he regarded the injured flank Heinrich Brussow as a "fantastic player" but thought Hendro Scholtz a good replacement and the Cheetahs still had a well-balanced, very physical loose trio.
by Len Kaplan
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