Rugby: Stormers unveil a tougher spirit

Back in 1999, a precocious Stormers team led by the irrepressible Bobby Skinstad dazzled their way into a home Super 12 semifinal. They had verve, panache and, unfortunately, greed in equal measures and on the eve of their playoff against the Highlanders they threatened to strike on match day if their wage demands were not met.

The Highlanders, bless their souls, struck a blow for sport in general when they smashed the cheeky Capetonians 33-18.

The white cloth adorning Table Mountain turned to black and the Stormers have never again reached the playoffs.

They have had the occasional good season and many a talented squad, but year after year their angry pre-season bluster peters out into a gentle breeze.

In short, the Western Province-based team have been little more than a storm in a tea cup.

But maybe, just maybe, this will be their year. Mitigating in their favour is the fact that they at last have a decent pack of forwards. For almost a decade, the Western ProvinceStormers tight five was derisively referred to as "powder puff", a belittling term put upon them some years ago by former Sharks captain Mark Andrews.

Indeed they have been as soft as warm cow dung and regularly failed to supply good ball to their consistently dangerous backline.

In 2007, new coach Rassie Erasmus set in motion a three-year plan to rectify the long-running problem and in last year's Currie Cup, the Western Province pack showed that they had at last matured into a fighting force.

This was confirmed in pre-season matches in January when the Stormers smashed the Sharks and the Force up front to set up big, impressive wins.

Behind the pack, the Western Cape side have secured arguably the biggest names in South African backline play: Bryan Habana, from the Bulls, and Jaque Fourie, from the Lions.

The Stormers have lost last year's captain Luke Watson to English club side Bath, but this is probably not a bad thing considering Schalk Burger had a big problem with Watson and his Springbok jersey-induced nausea.

Watson is gone, and Burger, the IRB Player of the Year in 2004, the new captain is hellbent on reclaiming the Bok openside flank berth from upstart Heinrich Brussow.

The Stormers have what Erasmus describes as the "prefect draw".

They start with a gentle away match against the Lions and then have five home games before a relatively easy four-match tour (every other year the South African teams play five matches overseas). They then finish with another sequence of home games.