Three losses and the last one was a first-half humiliation in Johannesburg, but that poor early season record from Edinburgh won’t dupe the Stormers into thinking they are up against anything other than a top team in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at the Hive.
There’s a big difference between an Edinburgh team playing on their 4G pitch in the northern autumn in front of their fans and playing against the Lions in Johannesburg in the early African summer — and effectively a lunchtime kickoff to boot.
There’s also a big difference between an Edinburgh team without Duhan van der Merwe — as they were against the Lions — and one with the bulky and explosive British & Irish Lions wing in tow.
It is unclear what drove the 29-year-old Van der Merwe to miss the Johannesburg game, but Stormers defence coach Norman Laker says he is preparing his team to face an Edinburgh team with the wing in it.
And he acknowledged that will require some extra work, as Edinburgh does make a lot of use of him when he is there and he is a big part of their attacking plan.
“I don’t know why Duhan didn’t play against the Lions. Maybe he was injured or he went to George to visit his family. But we will prepare as if he is on the left wing,” Laker said.
“Duhan is a quality rugby player. I was involved with the SA U20 side when he was there so I know him quite well. He’s a strong ball carrier, has a mean handoff and is quite quick as well.
“Scotland use him as one of their key game-breakers and it’s similar at Edinburgh. He gets them go-forward, so it’s important as an opposing team to devise a plan that stops him doing that.”
SA teams have proved quite good at keeping Van der Merwe quiet, as they did with the legendary Jonah Lomu when the All Blacks and his Super Rugby teams came here.
Van der Merwe has never scored against the Boks, and that includes games for Scotland and the British & Irish Lions. And he has only scored once against an SA franchise in the URC (the Bulls).
Van der Merwe is not the only player in the Edinburgh team who Laker has had a hand in coaching at national age-group level. Prop Pierre Schoeman is another. And the hosts have an SA flavour to their coaching staff, with head coach Sean Everitt and his assistant Scot Mathie both being people Laker knows well.
So he knows the thought processes that will be driving Edinburgh in their backs-to-the-wall scenario this week and is wary of the wounded animal his team will face.
“We have played against them quite a few times, including the quarterfinals in the first year in Cape Town,” Laker said.
“They are a quality outfit. Even though they have three losses on the trot, in this competition there are no weak teams. Everyone knows that, and anyone can beat anyone on any given day. They are a great team. While they haven’t clicked at the moment, they can on Saturday and if they do it will be a different game.”
Laker was fairly bullish in the early week online press conference from Parma, where the Stormers comprehensively outplayed Zebre at the weekend, and he had good reason to be. The Cape side were only a matter of minutes away from keeping their opponents scoreless, and it was a huge step up from their performance against the Ospreys, where there were defensive errors.
Laker buys doughnuts for the entire team on the days they keep rugby’s equivalent of soccer’s clean sheet. And even though it would have been costly in euros, he was looking forward to doing that before a moment of individual brilliance saw Zebre score a late try against the run of play.
“I would have happily bought doughnuts for the guys. To keep Zebre scoreless for 76min and 35sec was something special, especially after conceding four tries in the first game, which was quite hurtful for us as a squad.”
SuperSport.com
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