selection
With the Western Stormers announcing a B team for their match down under this weekend, Andy Capostagno ponders how other sides will react
Western Stormers coach Alan Solomons seems to be reinventing the traditional rules of the game on an almost daily basis. Last year, for instance, Solomons stopped releasing teams to the press in Western Province’s run in to the Currie Cup final, preferring instead to provide 22 names broken down into backs and forwards. This practise has unfortunately been adopted by Andr Markgraaff at the Gauteng Cats this season.
On the Springbok tour to Britain last year, Solomons is alleged to have tried to lure players from other provinces to his own with promises of an easier path to Test rugby with the Springboks. Now that the Stormers are in New Zealand, Solomons has come up with another doubtful practice; selecting an understrength side.
The official explanation is that certain players were physically drained by last week’s 24-22 victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington. Those players aren’t part of the 22-man squad for this Friday’s game against the Otago Highlanders in Dunedin, and Bobby Skinstad, Pieter Rossouw, Breyton Paulse, Percy Montgomery and Robbie Fleck won’t be starting the game.
The official explanation is bunkum. The fact is that Solomons is well aware that his team cannot beat the Highlanders on their own turf and, with away games against the ACT Brumbies and the New South Wales Waratahs to come, he has clearly decided that discretion is the better part of valour.
And in all honesty it is difficult to criticise Solomons for his decision. A full- strength Stormers can beat ACT in Canberra and, with a few out-of-boot performances, New South Wales could be bearded in Sydney.
But the Highlanders look like champions-elect whereas the Stormers look good enough to reach the semi-finals if a few balls bounce their way (like people missing simple kicks to win games against them, as happened last week).
In order to maximise their effort the Stormers cannot afford to waste key personnel in games they don’t feel they can win. Hence the selection against Otago. But this raises some big questions. In other sports, such as soccer for instance, the selection of understrength teams is proscribed. It can lead to loss of points and heavy fines.
And in case we think that rugby is not soccer, it is worth remembering what happened in the wake of the England third team’s disastrous tour of the southern hemisphere last year. The South Africa New Zealand Australia nations (Sanzar) issued a document stating that understrength teams would no longer be welcomed in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Presumably this document holds good for the Super 12, in which case it will be interesting to see what happens next. If Solomons’s ruse is accepted we could see a rash of strange selections from the other 11 teams in the competition. In a tournament as attritional as the Super 12 it can be camouflaged by phrases such as “the squad system” and “minor injuries” but as with Christmas presents, it is the thought that counts and this is a particularly virulent thought.
It suggests that the traditional sporting fare of the underdog who triumphs against all odds is out of date. Sport in the modern era is all about pragmatism and only a fool would send his crack troops over the top to face withering machine- gun fire, when waiting a week could see the weapons of war replaced with bows and arrows.
Or slingshots. How would the tale of David and Goliath be rewritten by the new view? Would David have been selected for the match against the Philistine champion, or would his manager have insisted that his client’s aim was too precious to be wasted against a nine cubit bruiser who was going to win anyway?
All this speculation could be overturned by a marvellous performance from the Stormers B team against the Highlanders, but don’t hold your breath. Solomons may not control the moral high ground, but he is not a fool. He will have looked at his team’s draw and worked out that the four-match Antipodean tour could gather six crucial points, 10 if key players stay fit and luck is with them.
After the win against the Hurricanes and the previous week’s four pointer against the Bulls, the Stormers are sitting on eight points. Another four from the next three games would give them 12 points followed by six successive home games to finish the Super 12.
Win five out of six of those and, with a few bonus points thrown in, the semi-finals will have been reached.
That is the root of the selection expected for the Highlanders match; like planes stacked over Heathrow, the Stormers are in a holding pattern, hoping against hope that when the runway is clear they will not miss with their approach and end up having foam squirted on to burning engines.