CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Stormers believe they are playing for the future of traditional rugby tours when they give New Zealand the opening challenge of its South Africa trek on Friday.
The All Blacks are undertaking their first tour of tests and provincial games in South Africa in 30 years. The Springboks will repay the visit in New Zealand in 2030 and New Zealand will return in 2034.
But Stormers coach John Dobson said the provincial games will become insignificant if his team plus the Sharks, the Bulls or Lions do not knock off the All Blacks, or are at least competitive.
“When the British and Irish Lions were here in 2021 the situation was far from ideal and the results didn’t do justice to the traditional tour concept,” Dobson told SuperSport.
“Due to it being played during the time of the COVID pandemic, that Lions tour was an unsatisfactory product. The teams were in a bubble, we had players in quarantine, the games were played in front of empty stadiums. And all the local franchise teams took heavy hidings. The Lions won their games by 60 points or more.
“If traditional tours are to have value we, meaning the South African clubs the All Blacks will face on this trip, need to win a game. We can’t just roll over and have our tummies tickled. If that happens again this is not going to work, and the concept of the traditional tour will be under threat and hard to sustain for future visits of teams like the All Blacks.”
The paucity of tours by the All Blacks means a South African province hasn’t beaten them in 50 years. On that 24-match tour in 1976, Western Province (now the Stormers) was the first, followed by Northern Transvaal (Bulls) and Orange Free State (Cheetahs). New Zealand was unbeaten against the provinces in 1996.
The problem for the current provinces is timing. They are between their European seasons. They haven’t played for at least two months — the Sharks not since mid-May — and would normally be starting preseason training now for the United Rugby Championship that doesn’t begin until late next month.
The provinces are also without their Springboks. The Stormers are missing eight, including Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
The Springboks released five fringe players and the Stormers got three of them: Forwards André-Hugo Venter, Evan Roos and, on the bench, Ntuthuko Mchunu. The Stormers will debut 20-year-old flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed, fresh from helping the Junior Springboks retain their under-20 world title in Georgia last month.
“When (this game) first came out it was the wrong time and we felt it would stuff up our preseason,” Dobson said. “But then it became clear to me that the players desperately want to play in this game, and as the game has approached the magnitude of it has just got bigger and bigger.
“We feel we have the responsibility to our history, to the memory of the famous win over the All Blacks in 1976, to give this game a full go and not hold back. We had two of the players from that 1976 team, Bossie Clarke and Peter Whipp, in to address the players, and it was quite inspirational.”
All Blacks coach Dave Rennie has picked his lineups for their first three games. Only two starters have kept their roles from the last match against Ireland. A late change was forced on Thursday when No. 8 Wallace Sititi was withdrawn due to “a mild illness.” Anton Segner was brought in to openside flanker and Peter Lakai switched to No. 8.
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