'Ospreys got away with it': Stormers bothered by maul-stopping tactic
SPOTLIGHT: Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani is hoping referees will be more aware of what is going on when it comes to mauling.
The Capetonians struggled to get that part of their game going in their 16-all draw with Ospreys, which was played in horrendous conditions in Swansea last Friday.
With the wet conditions making it largely unsuitable for a running game, Hlungwani’s side wanted to use their strong pack to build momentum.
However, they were thwarted by some smart and questionable tactics by the Welsh side.
“What they did well was to disrupt our mauls before we even set it – even before we got to the ground,” said Hlungwani.
“You have seen Alun Wyn Jones do it for Wales and he is quite good at it.
“He tries to break the seam between the lifter and the jumper [in the line-out] and they were quite successful at it. So, we couldn’t get our mauls going.
“A couple of teams might have seen it and would want to use a similar technique to break down our maul, but it is something we have put a high focus on and tried to improve this week.”
Hlungwani is expecting their upcoming opponents, Cardiff, to use the same tactic on Saturday.
“In this competition, most of the time if you want to start mauling, the battle starts in the air,” Hlungwani explained.
“The refs can’t always see everything and we do send clips nice and early to point out a couple of things that bother us.
“It’s a similar approach this week – Cardiff will have a similar approach to stopping the maul.
“The timing is everything when it comes to stopping mauls, but we do make the refs aware of it and Swansea [Ospreys] got away with it.
“We have to give them a bit of credit because they did it in a way so that the ref could not pin them.”
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Bok muscle
Meanwhile, the Stormers have been bolstered with the return of Springbok prop Frans Malherbe for that final tour match.
“Frans is a Springbok with plenty of Tests, so he is highly experienced,” said Hlungwani.
“It is always nice to have him around.
“He will definitely bolster our scrum and bolster our maul.
“His presence in our camp is quite handy. A lot of players feed off his energy so we are quite excited to have him here.”
Springbok lock Salmaan Moerat has headed home to manage his workload.
“Salmaan also spent a lot of time away from home with the Boks and this was pre-planned,” said the Stormers forwards coach.
“He was going to play two games and go home, so in terms of cover, it is something that we already planned.
“We had Ernst [van Rhyn] play lock already.
“We have Adre [Smith]. He didn’t play last week because he was taking a breather, so it is not something we are too concerned about.
“We have a plan and all we need to do now is just execute it.”
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