Former Bok captain Jean de Villiers explains the secret of Stormers’ success

Identifying the style of rugby they want to play and working on it as a group rather than individuals is the secret to Stormers’ success.

That is the view shared by former Springbok and Stormers captain De Villiers as the Cape defending champions prepared this week for another United Rugby Championship (URC) final, against Munster, at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (6.30pm).

De Villiers was part of the Stormers’ golden generations that boasted arguably better players than the current team, including Bryan Habana, Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger and Francios Louw.

But the team now led by coach John Dobson has been more successful in terms of results than the team of De Villiers’ era that lost the 2010 Super Rugby final and reached the semifinals in 2011 and 2012. Dobson’s charges beat the Jake White’s Bulls in last year’s URC final at the same venue.  

“I think they have been able to nail down the way they want to play and everyone has bought into that, and everyone strives to be as good as possible at doing that,” De Villiers, who also played for Munster, said during a URC media round-table.

“And credit must go to John Dobson and his team for being able to get that right. It’s not something that just happens overnight. It took them a couple of seasons to get it right, but I think they really understand the way they want to play, and they execute that really well.

“When the pressure comes on they don’t go into their shells. They stick with what has worked for them. If you compare that to my time playing for the Stormers, I think it was a constant kind of struggle as to what our identity was and how we wanted to play? Did we want to play expansive or return to a more conservative game?

“I don’t think we ever got that right. It was always kind of in-between and the pressure situation is what maybe costs us in those big games.

“I really do think that is what they got right. We might have had a fantastic team, a combination of fantastic players... but playing as a team towards one goal and understanding the way we want to play, I don’t think we ever got that spot-on.

“Former Munster player CJ Stander believes the return of Bok star RG Snyman, Connor Murray and Malakai Fekitoa are a huge boost for the Irish side. With those additions, Stander expects Munster to be a stronger team than the one that beat Leinster in the semifinals a fortnight ago.

“When I saw that list of the players getting on the plane, it was good to see a guy like Connor Murray coming back, RG and Malakai,” Stander said. “It boosts the energy that Munster players already have from beating the Stormers in Cape Town [in the round-robin stage], and who went to Dublin and beat Leinster.

“That is a huge boost for everyone because everyone wants to be on the plane.”