Stormers pack evolving under Winter
Winter took up the vacant position of Stormers forwards coach in October last year after five seasons in charge of the Golden Lions' Under 21 and Vodacom Cup sides. He also spent 12 years as player for the union.
The 40-year-old is now using what he learnt over a long career in rugby to turn the Stormers’ pack, which was one of the strongest last year, into an exciting one.
"They [Stormers] had a good pack," Winter told media at the Western Province High Performance Centre on Monday. "There are a lot of changes within the pack – a lot of young faces coming up. I have had a lot of experience over the years with packs so I tried to bring my own flavour.
"I like the pack to be exciting and have one or two of their own signature moves in the line-out and scrum. I also believe that a pack should be unified and should be able to coach themselves and that is what this pack can do.
"There is a lot of experience in the front row. There is experience in the back five as well. I like to give them the freedom to help them develop themselves, but at the same time just give them enough so that I can add my own flavour."
Winter had an opportunity to see how some of the Stormers' forwards faired against a strong Jaguares pack on the weekend and despite impressing on the day, Winter believes they still have some way to go before being the finished product.
"I think it was a good exercise. The Jaguares have a good pack as everybody knows, but I do think that we can always improve. For us as an exercise – getting these guys through the contacts and playing flat-out, and seeing where we at was good for us.
"Some line-outs were very good, but I think there were areas we need to work on. We can do better on drives and one or two of our finishing was not where we wanted it to be," Winter added.
While Winter and the rest of the Stormers coaching team are keen to bring a new exciting attacking edge to the Cape franchise's game, they also do not want to ignore the strong foundations laid by former coach Allister Coetzee.
"Everybody wants to play an exciting brand of rugby and that is what we want to do," said Winter.
"There has been a lot of things that have been done right [in the past] and we want to add to it.
"We just want to add to the good foundation that they have built here. Alister [Coetzee] was a fantastic coach and he put a lot of good things in place so hopefully we can add to that and bring some exciting rugby."
Another former Lion keen on making a difference to the Stormers' campaign this year is prop JC Janse van Rensburg, who joined the Cape side in November last year from French outfit Bayonne.
The 30-year-old loosehead prop, who made 50 appearance for the Lions in Super Rugby, wants to impart his knowledge on some of the Stormers' youngsters, especially the promising Oliver Kebble.
"He [Oliver Kebble] is a guy that is a hard worker and he really wants to improve and that is the most important thing in a props life," said Janse van Rensburg.
"You never know enough and he is a guy who is keen on learning.
"That is where I come into the picture. I played a few years of professional rugby and hopefully I can teach him one or two tricks that I know and I can learn from him as well.
"You are never too old to learn. That is the amazing thing about rugby."
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
