Winds of change must blow in Newlands

The Super 14 season is still a few months away but already Rassie Erasmus seems to be impressing with the ideas he has brought with him to the Stormers franchise.

I spent almost two months at the World Cup and will head to the UK later this week for the final two matches of Jake White's career as national coach, so haven't really concentrated much on the Stormers, but I had a couple of calls from the False Bay club after Rassie spoke there recently.

By all accounts the response to what Erasmus had to say was enthusiastic, and it is always a good sign if a new coach has the club people on his side.

"He is winning back the trust of rugby people who must surely back the 'Rassie Stormers' of 2008," said club chairman Gareth Jones in an e-mail.

Jon Harris was even more enthusiastic: "People went away totally gob-smacked, and it is this persona that rugby fans, particularly the die-hard WP type, need to know exists."

So Erasmus has been true to the pledge he made when he took over to get to know as many of the WP rugby people as possible, and club representatives have been encouraged by his willingness to hold trial matches in the same way that Dick Muir did during his first year in Durban.

Not only does Erasmus need to get to know the Cape rugby culture, he also knows this is a province with so much raw talent that it is almost inevitable good players with massive potential will slip through the net if you don't do a thorough stock-take. My mates at the Sharks have been sniffing around the Cape clubs for a while and WP need to make sure they don't lose someone that could add value to Province or the Stormers.

Looking ahead towards the next Super 14 season, which opens with a plum home fixture against the champion Bulls, it would appear the biggest challenge faced by Erasmus is the choice of captain.

The Stormers admin people pushed out a denial when the Cape Argus wrote about Erasmus' plans to axe Luke Watson as captain and, at the time, I was disappointed with the way some of the other media uncritically accepted the denial at face value and ran with it.

That Erasmus is considering a change of captain has been an open secret for some time now and was a talking point in the Springbok camp at an early stage of the World Cup. Back then it was understood that Erasmus considered Jean de Villiers his first choice captain, but then De Villiers' injury in the match against Samoa placed doubts about when he would be able to start the new season.

It now seems De Villiers will be available at an early stage of the competition and, if that is the case, then Erasmus must not delay in appointing him as the new leader and he must make the announcement as soon as he possibly can.

De Villiers, if he can remain uninjured for a couple of weeks at a time, is the obvious choice.

He is a bright player who Bok coach Jake White regards as a gifted strategist and, though the conversation happened over three years ago, White did say to me once that De Villiers would be the man to replace John Smit if he happened to still be the coach when the incumbent's career came to an end.

Watson was considered indispensable to the Stormers and WP this time last year, but much has changed since then. The controversy that has followed him tends to divide people. That is the last thing you want from the team leader, who should be the man tasked with uniting the troops.

Watson is a charismatic captain and natural leader, but his evangelical style does not go down with everyone, and a point was made when WP beat both the Sharks and Cheetahs without him towards the end of the last Currie Cup season. Release Watson to concentrate on his play and let De Villiers lead the team.