Damian Willemse’s goal-kicking needs some spicing up and Stormers assistant coach Labeeb Levy believes Ellis Park is the place where the flyhalf will get his groove back.
Tasked with the goal-kicking duties at the Stormers this season, with long-range kicker SP Marais now playing his rugby in Japan, Willemse has had a tough time with this duty to date.
Luckily for him, the Stormers kept both the Hurricanes and the Bulls scoreless at Newlands, meaning the five missed efforts in nine attempts in the first two games of the season didn’t cost his team much.
Levy, though, knows that when the Stormers travel to the Lions on Saturday, their duck may well be broken.
He also believes that with the altitude being what it is in Joburg, Willemse will have an easier time lining up at goal.
UPBEAT: Coach Labeeb Levy
Levy says: “At Ellis Park and Loftus you just have to kick the ball and work on your direction - the altitude [takes care of the rest].
“So hopefully he can turn it around this week.”
Fullback Dillyn Leyds is the back-up kicker at the moment. And after missing a kick of his own last weekend, Leyds was hard at work practising his goal-kicking at training on Monday.
Of Leyds, Levy says: “Dillyn probably knows he has to put more effort in - he would have learnt from it, all of a sudden he had to take a corner kick.”
PRACTICE: Back-up Dillyn Leyds. Picture: BACKPAGEPIX
While goal-kicking is an obvious work-on for the log leaders ahead of the Lions visit, Levy admits that they also have work to do on attack.
The skills coach says: “We haven’t hit full straps yet in the way we want to play. Fortunately, the defence has kept a clean sheet.
“This week we want to play a bit more rugby on a field which is normally wider and the ball travels better from a passing and a kicking perspective.
“Normally when you play there, the scores are not as low as it is in other parts of the country.
“We are looking to improve various aspects of our game.
“There were a lot of errors, which we’re looking to fix - a lot of the errors are fixable.”