A seriously undermanned Stormers team knocked off the Force at Newlands overnight.
The Match
In the lead up to this game I was looking at the injury list the home side has endured this season and it made for startling reading. The team they fielded this weekend bore very little resemblance to the line up that was expected to challenge for the title this year. Accordingly, the Force would have been eyeing this game as winnable and a way to springboard their tilt at finals footy for the first time. It didn’t work at that way at all and the Stormers won comfortably.
Indeed the first quarter of the game was all the home side. They leapt (stormed, even) out of the gate and dominated possession and territory. The Force had no ball and no field position at all in the early going. They tackled stoutly and generally kept their line discipline admirably. The was a great period of defence against an early wave of Stormers phases and to their credit they kept pushing them backwards. They got some dusty calls against them too, but that’s footy (the rub of the green they got against the Bulls a couple of weeks ago was reversed this weekend). What it did mean, though, was that they couldn’t clear their half. At this stage, the Stormers had nearly 90% of the pill in the first quarter and well over that in field position. The Force just couldn’t get their hands on it at all.
It had to tell in the end and de Jongh crashed over in the corner after another sustained period of pressure. There was no lack of enthusiasm from the visitors, just no ability to impose themselves on the game. Credit has to be given to the Stormers for that too. Whilst they weren’t creating a lot in terms of line breaks, they were imposing immense pressure on the defence, which in itself creates fatigue. The Force finally get themselves into a strong attacking position on the Stormers line and then rightly got pinged trying a driving maul from about five metres out. That seemed to knock the stuffing of them a bit.
The contest was certainly well and truly live at this point and there were some pretty huge collisions, but for the Force everything coming through huge effort and not a lot of reward. Duane Vermeulen was immense in the loose and at the centre of all the Stormers attacking raids. He and his team mates were pretty relentless
In the minutes leading up to half time was the pivotal moment of the game for mine. The Stormers executed a catch and drive from an attacking lineout near the Force goal line. They were inching towards the in goal area when Adam Coleman received a yellow card for collapsing a maul. A penalty duly followed, with several more phases piling on the pressure. The Stormers were then awarded an attacking scrum. From the ensuing restart a penalty try was awarded. A tough task then became that much harder for the visitors and they went into oranges at 17-3 down.
The second half started with Coleman still in the bin, but the Force managed to get some possession early. Unfortunately they didn’t take good options and certainly weren’t accurate enough. One such incident led to a Stormers try, when they coughed the ball up in contact, leading to a breakout in broken play. From a scrum soon after the home team score. The yellow by this stage had cost the Force fourteen points and effectively the game.
The Stormers were now comfortably ahead and in the process made the Force chase the game, something that doesn’t come naturally to them. The Force game plan is predicated on suffocating defence, keeping the game close and striking when the opportunity presents itself. This game was the total opposite of that. The Stormers own defence, for which they are justifiably renowned, pushed the Force back seveeral times and made them go too one out and laterally.
The last last quarter of the match degenerated into trench warfare, many penalties (with two yellows cards!), but the Force couldn’t consistently get over the gain line. They finally scored against thirteen men, but by then the sting had well and truly gone out of the game.
The Force lineout has some serious problems and needs fixing if they are to advance this season. The Stormers won several against the throw and looked very comfortable on their own feed. You can’t afford to be giving away ball in any set piece situation. I would have thought that Wilhelm Steenkamp needs to start next week for his lineout and ability around the field.
One positive though, was the debut of another WA product, Luke Burton. Whilst he didn’t star, he certainly didn’t look overawed or out of place. He didn’t shy away from contact and wasn’t dominated in the tackle. This kind of development can only benefit the Force in the long run.
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The Game Changer
Adam Coleman’s yellow card right before half time. It led directly to the penalty try and meant that the Stormers were up 17-3 at half time.
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The G&GR MotM
Overall it was Vermeulen for me. He was everywhere, strong in contact and a menace at the breakdown. He had a super game. For the Force I thought McCalman was also very good.
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Wallaby watch
Nobody really stood out in a beaten team, but the aforementioned McCalman certainly kept his name squarely in the selectors sights.
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The Details
Stormer: 24 (De Jongh, Penalty Try, Botha tries; Grant 3 cons; Grant pen) defeated Force: 8 (Hodgson try; Ebersohn pens)
Yellow cards: Coleman (Force); Kolbe, Taute (Stormers)
Refereee: Chris Pollock
