De Villiers to salvage sinking ship?
Stormers captain Jean de Villiers has explained that getting his side back to winning ways is the most important thing for him at the moment.
The side from the Mother City has not enjoyed a good run of results recently and returned from their overseas tour in poor shape and added to their already catastrophically long injury list.
The Springbok captain was very emotional after their 21-30 loss to the Rebels and called for some serious action to take place at the Stormers.
He spoke, this week, of how this action was going to take place and how the Stormers were going to address their bad run of form.
"The tour was very disappointing and certainly we have re-shifted our goals and it is easy to jump ship but that is not in my character and I would like to get it back on track.
"It is more about the team culture and what we stand for and having a bit of a heart-to-heart and we have done that," De Villiers explained.
Whenever a team enters into a slump it is important to reflect and see what the causes of that slump are and not dive into the next match expecting it to come right. This is something that De Villiers is aware of and he has seen the Stormers go through slumps and understands what it takes to get out of them.
"I have been through the dark days and the good days of Stormers rugby and I know how difficult it is to get through those dark days and how hard you need to work to get a team to the success that I believe we have had over the last number of years.
"It is easy to throw that away again and sometimes guys don't realise what it takes," he added.
An attitude change or slight adjustment is sometimes what is needed in situations like this and the 'heart-to-heart' that the Stormers had after the Rebels match could be the turn around.
"Sometimes you take it for granted, I have been in the system for so long sometimes I take it for granted that everyone knows when they are out of line and when they not on the right track," De Villiers mentioned.
The Stormers cannot be faulted for effort and the captain, especially, is playing some of his best rugby, but he can only do so much and having played virtually every minute of the season he is trying his hardest to keep the ship afloat.
"What is at stake for me now is captaining the side and getting the ship sailing again.
"The responsibility is on us to get it right and get the pride back in the jersey. We have high standards and we haven't lived up to that," he added.
De Villiers was very philosophical on how the pressure on the Stormers has changed over the past few years.
"A couple of years ago when we were hanging around the middle to lower parts of the table and that was acceptable whereas the standards that have been set over the last couple of years makes this situation worse and it never will be acceptable."
The positivity of De Villiers is clearly evident. He still believes that the side that the Stormers are putting on the field on Saturday is capable of beating the high-flying Reds.
"I am excited about the team selected this weekend. What a great opportunity to make a name for yourself."
He was referring, in part, to the selection of Chris Heiberg who has been selected in the absence of both Frans Malherbe and Pat Cilliers. Heiberg will make his Stormers debut should he get on the field on Saturday.
By Nick Tatham
