Stormers give Sharks the blues
The Stormers continued with what so far has been an impressive buildup to the Super 14 season with a comprehensive 29-14 win over the Sharks in the final Neo Africa Tri-Series match at Newlands on Friday night.
There has been some speculation in the pre-season that the Stormers might this year usurp the Sharks as the team that joins the Super 14 champion Bulls outfit as the best South African challenger for the trophy. As Stormers captain Schalk Burger conceded, it is still early days, but on the evidence of this match it would seem that the critics have it right.
The Sharks made a significant lift on the intensity shown in their previous game against the Western Force on Tuesday, and they troubled the Stormers for a while in the first half with their ferocious onslaught at the breakdowns. Whereas the Sharks got more numbers to the recycles, however, the Stormers did always appear to be the more accurate and clinical of the two sides.
The process is what is important at this stage of the season, but with just one more warm-up match against Boland to come at the new Cape Town Stadium next Saturday, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee will feel that several more boxes have been ticked.
The Cape side thumped the Western Force in the opening match of the Neo Africa Tri-Series last Saturday, but the Australian franchise fielded what was in essence a second string team. Sharks coach John Plumtree rang the changes at half-time, but in this match the Stormers were up against a full-strength combination that was in a determined mood following midweek humiliation against the Force.
The buzz from the Stormers fans among the 22 000 Friday night crowd halfway through the second half said it all – the Stormers, for now at least, look like they have something brewing. Take a deep breath though Stormers fans before you start lighting candles and breaking out the champagne, for the little embryo in the egg that is the 2010 season is still no bigger than a flea.
Still, Coetzee and Rassie Erasmus should be pleased with the way it has gone so far, for on paper at least, the Sharks pack they faced in this match was a useful unit. And the Stormers big men outplayed them. That is significant if you consider the reputation that previous Cape teams were lumped with for having a soft underbelly up-front.
The Stormers’ attacking game, with the execution, organisation, speed, confidence and poise of the first phase attack being even better than it was against the weakened Force team that was swept aside by 50 points a week ago.
Were it not for the slew of breakdown penalties conceded by the Stormers in the first half, coupled with the yellow carding of Francois Louw, the hosts should have been a lot further ahead at half-time as they bossed the Sharks in almost every facet of the game.
The Stormers’ indiscipline in the first half kept the Sharks in the contest, and for a while early in the second half they even drew level as veteran Stefan Terblanche’ s introduction from the bench resulted in the Sharks winning the numbers game to put Luzuko Vulindlu in for the Sharks’ only try to make it 14-all.
But Louw was off at that stage, and when the Stormers tightened up their act the Durbanites just disappeared as the Stormers gained irrepressible and unstoppable momentum. Under the pressure applied by the Stormers, the Sharks found themselves on the receiving end of Craig Joubert’s whistle, with Jannie du Plessis and Jean Deysel being sent to the sinbin.
The longer the match lasted so the more dominant the Stormers became in the forward battle, and the series of dominant scrums that led to a disallowed try to Duane Vermeulen and then a good one to Sireli Naqelevuki should have been a welcome sight to eyes that have become accustomed to seeing Cape teams struggle in this phase.
A short while later the Stormers mauled the Sharks off the ball when in a defensive situation, something which should be as much a warning to the Sharks’ brainstrust as it was a confidence booster for the home team.
Schalk Burger was playing his first game of the season as Stormers captain and he celebrated by scoring the first try of the match, which was the product of a Gio Aplon incision through a gap as the pacy wing ghosted into the backline in the 15th minute. When Burger is presented with the sight of a tryline and no defenders in front of him, there is no stopping him.
Two Joe Pietersen penalties to one from Rory Kockott for the Sharks had already put the Stormers into a 6-3 lead, so the Stormers were in control of the game to that point. But the breakdown penalties conceded by the Stormers should be of concern as we head to the Super 14 kick-off against the Lions in Johannesburg in two weeks time.
Burger left the field at half-time and will probably get more game-time against Boland next week, leaving Andries Bekker to front the Stormers. This the Springbok lock did impressively, playing perhaps his tightest game in ages, and he was up with Tiaan Liebenberg when the hooker went over for the second Stormers try after a series of short drives.
While the Stormers impressed with their wide-ranging attacking game for much of the match, they showed in the last quarter with their short driving and dominant scrum that their metamorphosis into a forward orientated, physical unit in the Currie Cup last season was not a mirage.
For the Sharks there is much work to be done as the big question marks hanging over key areas remain in place, and if there was going to be one area where they were going to shape this season, it was at forward. You wouldn’t have thought so if you were a Sharks fan at Newlands last night.
Scores Stormers 29 – Tries: Schalk Burger, Tiaan Liebenberg and Sireli Naqelevuki; Conversions: Joe Pietersen; Penalties: Joe Pietersen 4. Sharks 14 – Try: Luzuko Vulindlu; Conversion: Rory Kockott; Penalties: Rory Kockott 3.
