Cape Town - The Stormers' plan to spare their fringe Springboks a long-haul trip to Ireland and target the coastal clash with the Sharks paid dividends after their comprehensive win yesterday at Durban’s Kings Park.
John Dobson, Stormers coach, did not mince his word when he admitted he kept his star players in South Africa for this United Rugby Championship match to let them loose in the coastal derby.
Dobson's plan came to fruition when his side scored a convincing victory of 46-19 to keep a buffer between them and the Bulls on the URC log. The Stormers sit comfortably in second place ahead of Ulster and their nemesis from Pretoria.
"We were always coming for this game, to be honest," Dobson said afterwards.
"It was a deliberate plan (last week) to keep some of our top players at home to focus on this match. Victories in the South African shield are of utmost importance to us.
"The emotion in this game was also thanks to us losing two URC games in a row. We said to ourselves 'who are we to lose a third in a row?' But, I also did not expect it to turn out (the drubbing) how it did."
His team reaped the rewards of a fresh captain-flanker Deon Fourie, who was a menace at the breakdown. He showed absolutely no sign of being a 36-year-old loose forward every time he swamped over a ruck to steal possession.
Early in the game he also put Sharks scrumhalf, Cameron Wright, in his place with a few open-handed swats after Wright repeatedly held him back at a ruck.
Flyhalf Manie Libbok ran the show on the attack, but even he will admit his helter-skelter performance cost his team more points.
If his kicking was not off and if he did not butcher a sure try, the scoreline could've been well in the 50s. He made up for it though, showing some silky touches in some tries and backline moves.
"He made mistakes today, but jeepers, he makes things happen," Dobson added. "And that is important in rugby. You can put a robotic 10 in and probably be safe. But for the good of the game and how the Stormers want to play, Manie is the guy.
"He was fantastic in opening things up and that first try (of Herschel Jantjies) was a typical Stormers (counter-attack) try. Manie was instrumental in that."
Winger Seabelo Senatla's return from injury also brought joy as the former Blitzbok was ever-present and celebrated with one of the team's six tries.
But the brunt of the hard work was done upfront with the Stormers crushing the Sharks in the scrums. Even in the absence of resting Springbok props Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe, both the starting and replacement front-rowers made the Sharks' scrum tread backwards.
Dobson was pleased by this aspect of their play, but felt his team could've done better late in the line-outs.
"The scrumming performance was superb. By the time we finished that game, we were probably on our third and fourth-choice props.
"That was really good."