Stormers brace for test of mettle
27 Mar 2012
Allister Coetzee says that Saturday’s north-south derby will push the Stormers to their mental as well as physical limits.
There is a sense that the Stormers have been building towards this clash since the start of the season. They began the competition in typically ponderous fashion, recording scratchy wins against depleted Hurricanes and Sharks teams, before finally building some momentum with a good forward showing against the Blues.
They beat the Lions narrowly last week, but according to their coach, the Stormers are looking to lift their standards for their final match before they travel Down Under. While they were big favourites in all of their previous matches, they could make a statement if they overcome a rampant Bulls side this weekend.
‘It will be a massive physical game but it will be a massive mental tussle as well,’ Coetzee said. ‘I’m not saying the players took the Lions lightly, but you are always thinking a couple of weeks in advance before you play the Bulls. Now the game is here, and I know the players are ready.
‘There is lots to work on after last week’s game against the Lions, but it’s not a bad position to be in. It’s such a long competition and you don’t want to peak too early, you want to improve bit by bit.’
The Stormers raced to an early lead in Johannesburg but allowed the Lions to hit back in the second half. Again it was a determined defensive effort that allowed the Stormers to claim the win, but they realise it will take more to subdue and conquer a side like the Bulls.
Not only are the men from Pretoria in fine form up front, their halfbacks have been taking good options and the outside backs have shown their finishing ability. If the Cape side is presented with opportunities this Saturday, they will need to make them count, and if they hit an early lead, they can’t afford to be complacent.
‘We know what the Bulls will bring in terms of physicality and pressure. They’re also very dangerous from turnover ball as they showed last week,’ said Coetzee.
‘We were clinical for 29 minutes against the Lions, and obviously the question is why we weren’t clinical for the full 80. Sometimes you go through patches where one knock-on leads to another. In those situations you can almost be your own worst enemy because you take the pressure that you have exerted on the opposition and exert it on yourself.
‘The Bulls are a quality side so you can’t afford lapses in concentration, you can’t give away easy yards. You have to be accurate.’
Coetzee added that while the players realise that they underperformed against the Lions, the team is in high spirits having won four games on the bounce.
‘It’s great to learn hard lessons like these while you are winning,’ he said. ‘We know where we went wrong, and there is never a lack of motivation for a derby match like this. The players have been looking forward to it for a long time.’
By Jon Cardinelli
238 Comments
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27 Mar 2012, 12:32 pm
My favorite movie of all time is my cousin’s wedding tape.
It lasts three days has all the best parts of a story.
Violence, ***, drugs, dancing so much of humour and in the end one of the bridesmaids gets fucked in the ***.
27 Mar 2012, 12:33 pm
@BuckT(BuckTrendy)-199: “Provincial bias aside” Hell bro – on this blog…good luck with that!
27 Mar 2012, 12:33 pm
Can someone tell me why De Lange was bowling with 10 -15 overs to go, when he had been dispatched for plenty, what was wrong with Morkel?
27 Mar 2012, 12:35 pm
@BuckT(BuckTrendy)-188: Nope. This is a real person living down the road from me. Her son is in my son’s class and at the last Birthday party all the men agreed that her place is best equipped for a major disaster event.
We are all going to camp there for a few weeks in December just in case.
27 Mar 2012, 12:36 pm
Vodacom Pink Bulls
27 Mar 2012, 12:37 pm
@BuckT(BuckTrendy)-203:
He had a spasm somewhere on his back.
27 Mar 2012, 12:37 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-204: My guess- MILF!
27 Mar 2012, 12:41 pm
@gr8 white(gr8 white)-207: Not even close, sadly.
27 Mar 2012, 13:07 pm
Groundhog day
27 Mar 2012, 13:10 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-208: disappointing! Look for alternatives…if your gonna be holed up in a place for an undefined period you need a little insperation to get you through the day!
27 Mar 2012, 13:12 pm
My groundhog day would be the 2010 final vs Stormers. Classic
27 Mar 2012, 13:35 pm
This sounds like the latest meeting of the Movie Club.
27 Mar 2012, 13:38 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-212: Just waiting for someone to mention that their fav is “The Sound of Music”!
27 Mar 2012, 13:55 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-212:
indeed.
quite suprised nobody when with capo’s favourite.
101 dalmatians.
27 Mar 2012, 13:59 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-214: I heard Capo once tried to sue for his money back from the video store after they told him Million Dollar Baby was a film about a female boxer.
27 Mar 2012, 14:09 pm
@Special Agent Raj Manipedi(Raj Manipedi)-206:
Are you a fan of Andre Nel?
27 Mar 2012, 14:31 pm
Hahahaha
I believe he was partcularly disappointed wih the Horse Whisperer.
27 Mar 2012, 14:36 pm
I was too. Thought it was going to be about a bloke with laryngitis.
27 Mar 2012, 15:24 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-204:
when you say ‘best equipped for a major disaster event’ i would only ask if you have actuallt thought that through well enough?
how big is the property?
how isolated from its closest main city?
is the road network isolated?
does the living quarters on the property offer a high level of defensibility? i.e. can it be shuttered and garrisoned easily with protection against naked flame fire bombing and small to medium arms fire?
do the dwellings have well constructed secret escape routes/passages in the event the main fortification/s prove indefensible / are breached / is destroyed in an attack?
do you have secondary fall back fortifications to get to from your escape routes?
or are you planning to escape into open wilderness and use mountainess terrain or other for hiding out?
is the property on high ground and is there any other close highground terrain from which enemy spotters can gain recon on your defences, movement of defenders, placement of artillery and so forth?
does the property offer easy natural geography for setting of defensive perimeters?
if so then how many defensive perimeters?
does the road network allow for easy to set up roadblocks for blocking and trapping of any invading units of attackers in large numbers using mines and arms fire?
are there natural chokepoints along the routes to your property?
do you have effective counter-attacking strategies in place for taking the offensive tempo and direction back to the/any attacking forces?
some obvious questions of course are how long are your food supplies planned to last as well as your ammunition and so forth?
can you easily link up with other similar bands/units of ‘defenders’ who may or not decide to move to areas of safety behind friendly lines and which may require moving through hostile terrain?
can you accomadate airborne evacuation craft?
so many questions…
27 Mar 2012, 15:51 pm
Who’s the greatest of all time
Brando?
Nicholson?
De Niro?
Opperman?
27 Mar 2012, 16:00 pm
Frank Opperman playing Chris Karedes the Cypriot emigrant in the Big Time (anyone remember that ????)
27 Mar 2012, 16:02 pm
anyway, i disagree that africa is not a good location to be situated in the event of ‘total collapse’ societal breakdown situation. it is in my view a very suitable location as it for one does not expose one to the risk of having to contend with large numbers of very likely heavily armed, desperate and hungry europeans and/or chinamen who would to various degrees hold the skills and expertise neccesary to conduct warfare/conflict on a highly mechanised and strategic/tactical level. you dont want to be competing against any equally capable adversaries.
basically you want to be competing against any opponents who for the most part would have comparibly crude methods for conducting warfare/conflict against you.
and against whom you can use the skills of conducting mechanised operations using superiour firepower/weaponry as well as strategic/tactical abilities. a poorly capable enemy is an easy enemy to defend against, or even overcome for that matter, by a smaller yet organised and intentful group.
a good case in point is the conflict between the israelies and arabs which does not need further stressing.
at its most simplist an end of society scenario will pit any such group capable of defending and/or capturing scarce and needed resources from any /all such groups who will comprise the bulk of the remainder of society and/or smaller splinter groups of any form or shape. there’ll be a little bit of everything in such a mix of course but in the main they wont have an overall, overarching plan other than simply going around trying to loot, steal and kill where they can.
if you organise a group and plan against this, its possible to come out victorious against such opposition and in a better position than were you instead in europe, n america, asia, australasia and so on in my opinion. besides south africa offers a great number of very isolated locations which have all the requirements for survival.
27 Mar 2012, 16:07 pm
@FFF(FFF)-220: VERNON KOEKEMOER!
27 Mar 2012, 16:08 pm
@welcome to my life, hugh…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-222:
Noted.
Now condense it to one sentence.
EG : “In event of total economic collapse proceed to Orania with your family and your guns>”
27 Mar 2012, 16:26 pm
@welcome to my life, hugh…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-219: @welcome to my life, hugh…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-222: OK now you’re freaking me out just a bit
Actually her property offers very few of those things, but it is big, The house is in the very centre, it has very clear fields of fire all round, is on fairly flat ground (no “higher ground”) and most importantly has both above and below ground water tanks.
The perimeter is easily guarded and whilst it will not really do against a large scale assault it will do in a pinch.
If TSHTF I’m heading off to Namibia. That where my father was born and grew up, we own some property there and I speak reasonable German.
Either that or steal a good sized yacht in the RCYC and head out to sea, desalinate my water and fish.
If Kevin Costner can do it so can I.
27 Mar 2012, 16:42 pm
no need to go anywhere… dunno who everyone’s running from anyway…
if however the russians or chinese or americans invade south africa for our natural resources and brilliant minds…
there’re some very comfortable, but hard to reach, caves on table mountain which will do just fine…
27 Mar 2012, 16:53 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-224:
no not really, in my opinion souht africa would probably splinter apart in a sort of balkanisation process in which cross racial groups will ally together in common cause against the largely african majority class, who for the most part will be most exposed to the desperation of plight in a total collapse scenario, hence therefor the most likely to be looting, killing, robbing in desperation to survive.
i dont know where the small african elite class would go but my guess is probably with the guys winning the fight for resources.
so there’ll probably be parts of the country (the bulk i suppose as well as the most productive and fertile) under the control of the minority allied group and parts of the country under the control of the majority group which may or may not be lawless and in a state of ‘thunderdome’ uncivility.
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-225:
ok fair enough, i suppose a plan is better than no plan at the end of the day.
but i for one do not intend to end up in some bunch of crazy redneck freaks basement abbatoir as food ala ‘the road’ as tac mentioned.
the sea is a good bet as well namibia as its isolation offers easy defensibility.
27 Mar 2012, 16:57 pm
@ufo(ufo)-226:
end of life (society) catastrophic events… its a thing…
27 Mar 2012, 17:03 pm
In the event of a catastrophe I shall blame Helen Zille.
I shall have every last bottle of Evian in Constantia Village together with my massive pornography collection I shall be just fine.
27 Mar 2012, 17:15 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-229:
27 Mar 2012, 17:19 pm
Combined with the contents of my humidor and cellar I shall literally drink, smoke and masturbate my self into extinction.
I have seen the future.
It’s glorious.
27 Mar 2012, 17:26 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-229:
what are you gonna hypnotise the murderous scavenging hordes with your most excellent porn collection by holding round the clock showings outside your garden?
hmmmm..?..not so sure…
also, that would not be the time snobbery old boy… bottled water is bottled water… no matter the brand…
27 Mar 2012, 17:33 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-231:
why not keep a zex slave or a few for that matter?
you could eat her out and then eat her up…depending on the food situation.
27 Mar 2012, 17:45 pm
ok, am out…
with any luck the mayans were wrong about the world ending…except for those low dirty cheats… you know who you are… thats right…end of your world, bye bye all blacks…
dust in the wind,
all you are is dust in the wind…
27 Mar 2012, 18:07 pm
I said ….
One sentence.
27 Mar 2012, 19:31 pm
Can’t wait for this.
My first visit to Newlands in 8 years.
And I promise not to throw a water bottle to any player!
27 Mar 2012, 20:13 pm
@willievz(willievz)-236: Even if they look, very, very thirsty?
28 Mar 2012, 07:29 am
229@Gunther …..
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