4. Defensive Efforts Winning Games
Two games in particular stood out over the weekend where defence won games and it’s no surprise that they both involved South African teams, the Stormers and the Cheetahs.
The Stormers game in recent years has been built on defence with the occasional attacking raid thrown in and have tried to steer away from that in 2015.
In Sydney on Saturday night against the Waratahs, they ended up with just 28% possession yet scored 4 tries and 32 points all up on the back of 118 tackles. All this without their leader Duane Vermeulen who was back in South Africa under instruction from SARU to rest.
They may have scored some late tries to blow out that score but the result was built on the back of defensive pressure with a number of the Waratahs forwards going backwards in contact on numerous occasions.
Over in Perthfontein, the boys from Bloemfontein took on the Force and came up 24-15 winners. The Cheetahs chalked up 137 tackles and had 36% possession and the highlight of their defensive effort came late in the game when they held out the Force after 26 phases.
