Norman Laker v Jacques Nienaber: Can Stormers unlock Leinster defence?

Norman Laker probably loves defence more than the game of rugby itself.

He lives and breathes tackling, stopping the opposition attack from unlocking the Stormers’ defence – and even rewards the players with doughnuts if they don’t concede a try.

So, knowing how important defence is to him, he won’t be too happy to see that the Stormers have conceded 37 tries in 14 matches in the United Rugby Championship this season – the fourth-most of the current top-eight teams, with only the Bulls (40), Edinburgh (40) and Benetton (38) conceding more five-pointers.

Just for context, in the 2021/22 title-winning season, the Stormers gave away just 36 tries in 18 league matches.

This season, Glasgow are on a miserly 23 tries conceded, followed by Munster (30), Leinster (33) and the Ospreys (34).

What would’ve hurt Laker even more was last week’s 27-21 defeat to the Ospreys at the Cape Town Stadium, which left the Stormers in sixth spot on 40 points, and suddenly in danger of missing out on the URC quarter-finals entirely after pushing for a home play-off last weekend.

With four rounds to go, John Dobson’s team can’t afford to leak easy tries any more – and they will have their hands full in trying to contain Leinster’s attack at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (7.05pm kick-off).

The men from Dublin will surely hit back from their 44-12 loss to the Lions at Ellis Park last week, even though they will field another second-string side as the big guns prepare for next weekend’s Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton.

Just to add to the pressure on Laker and the Stormers, they have one of the Cape side’s previous stalwarts in Jacques Nienaber as their defence coach, so it’s the two gurus going head-to-head this weekend – even though the ex-Springbok boss has already returned to prepare the first-choice side for the Northampton clash.

“Very disappointing, especially in my department (against the Ospreys). I wasn’t really happy with conceding four tries – it was quite a tough pill to swallow,” Laker, with the anguish visible on his face, said this week.

“But it happened, and the stuff that we know went wrong on Saturday, we have talked about and fixed it. We are quite happy to be back at home to fix the problems of last Saturday.

“Any Leinster team you play against are a quality outfit, and I know Jacques quite well – I learnt a lot from him, being in the Stormers system, and I know they will be very competitive.

“I know that they are taking the loss against the Lions quite badly. I spoke to him (Nienaber) and they will definitely bounce back, but so will we.

“We disappointed ourselves, and we disappointed the whole of Cape Town and whoever watches our games around the world.

“It’s something that we are not proud of as a group, but for the games coming up, we are looking forward to each and every one … every game now is basically a play-off game.

“We need to end as high as possible in the URC log, and get our Champions Cup spot for next season. We were a point away from the top four, and it will be very disappointing if we don’t get there.”

Nienaber was lauded for his impact as Leinster outlasted La Rochelle in the Champions Cup quarter-final, and he will hope that his system can help the players fix the issues from the Lions defeat in Cape Town.

But someone who will know his thinking inside out will be Laker, and it will be fascinating to see which ‘rush defence’ will win the gain-line battle on Saturday.

“He played a big role in my career. He came to the Stormers at the end of 2007, and I was working at the institute then,” Laker said about Nienaber.

“He came weekly to the institute and did defence for the Under-19s, and in 2010, I took over from him with the Under-19s and the (WP Rugby) Institute.

“Then in 2013, I worked with the juniors at the HPC (High Performance Centre), and we rubbed shoulders a lot with each other and shared ideas. We worked together at the SA Under-20s, and then he went to Munster – and that’s when I got my opportunity in 2016 with the Currie Cup.

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“When he came back to the Boks, half of the Stormers team were in the Bok side, so we worked together on defence.

“We always shared ideas, and he was a guy who didn’t keep his thoughts to himself.

“That is why we get along so well. We could complement each other in the system, and there were things I learnt from him and things he learnt from me, and there was a great system in place.

“It’s going to be interesting and lekker to test myself against him. Leinster’s defence was always passive… They never came too hard off the line, and they rather had a connected defence.

“But now they come very hard off the line. You could see against La Rochelle the impact he has made on the team and their defence.”