2oceansvibe’s bi-weekly sports columnist, Sean Wilson, mulls over the important aspects of this weekend’s upcoming Super 15 semi-final between the Stormers and the Sharks.

When one looks at the past month and compares the form of the Stormers and the form of the Sharks, one can’t look at their upcoming semi-final without getting a tortoise and hare feeling.

It’s incredible that even though the team that finished first is playing at home to the team that finished sixth, a home win is very far off being considered a “sure thing”.

The Stormers finishing top of the log must still be respected, of course. Even though it was achieved with very few moments of attacking sexiness, their defensive record is an impeccable testament to the players, head coach Allister Coetzee, and of course defensive coach Jacques Nienaber. No team has been able to match their defensive structures coupled with a study of opposing attacks (which must be right on the border of being creepily voyeuristic).

However, this Stormers side is surely the least impressive of all other teams that have topped the log of Super Rugby in the past. With the possible exception of the ‘99 Reds team that sneaked to the top of the log following Bob Skinstad’s car crash, this Stormers side would look on every other table-topping side with awe, envy and possibly lust.

People who are predicting a Stormers victory are mostly doing so by taking the insane travel schedule of the Sharks into account. Their itinerary of jumping from Durban to Brisbane followed by Cape Town is testing, even by Super Rugby standards. This is the first time a team has been asked to cross the Indian Ocean twice in just over a week in order to play a semi-final.

By the way, I can hear the readers that are screaming at me: “The Crusaders had to do it last year!” Let me point out that while they did do an inordinate amount of moving around last year, they were in New Zealand for their play off game, and then crossed the ocean for their semi (they crossed it twice in the same time frame before the final, which they lost). So while the Crusaders are the undoubted Amazing Race champions, the circumstances of this year’s semi-final remains unchartered territory.

The Sharks’ plight isn’t solely attributed to bad luck, of course. If they had hit their peak form earlier in the tournament or at least demonstrated more consistency, they would have surely been in contention for a home semi-final themselves.

It can be argued that they are somewhat lucky, and are the biggest beneficiaries of the controversial conference structure, because the old system didn’t award any play off possibilities for the team that finished sixth. Even if you take out the intrinsic mollycoddling the conference system gives Australian teams and said the Sharks finished fifth on merit, it still would’ve knocked them out of the tournament, pre-2011.

If the Sharks manage victory, their travel schedule will get even sillier with a trip to New Zealand for the final. Surely that would prove a bridge too far. Coach John Plumtree must be cursing some of the points they dropped earlier in the tournament. Their loss against the Lions is at the heart of their season’s darkness, and if you listen closely to the coach’s post-match interview, you can hear him huskily mumble “The horror…the horror”.

When one analyses the match-ups of the combinations in the two teams, one would probably have to give the Sharks the edge in the battles of the front rows, the back rows and possibly the halfbacks. The Stormers probably have the upper hand in the second row, the centres, and they might just shade it in the battle of the back threes.

Favouring the Sharks front-row is a no-brainer. Beast Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis and Jannie du Plessis is the incumbent Springbok combination, and a veritable who’s who of modern Tri-Nations, World Cup and Lions Tour stalwartship. They are up against a Stormers front row that doesn’t boast one Springbok cap, and while 20-year old Steven Kitshoff (yes, you read that right) might have an incredible future ahead of him, one does get the feeling he might have to resist the urge to ask for some autographs.

The Stormers shade it in the second row, even though one can’t discount Willem Alberts’ jaw-dropping power. The combination of Andries Bekker and Eben Etzebeth must take it over what can fairly be described as a makeshift Sharks combination.

The Stormers would smoke this category if their line-outs resembled any security. The setpiece has arguably been one of the most disappointing facets of their play this season. Instead of Bekker using his towering presence to rule over proceedings, too many Stormers line-outs result in clumsy one-handed flapping, like seals using their fins on beach balls in a game of aquarium-friendly volleyball.

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