The Bulls and Stormers game was built up as potentially the game of the weekend, only for it to turn into a dour affair with not a single clean scrum, scrappy lineouts, terrible handling (mostly from the Ricky… er, the Stormers) and a fair amount of kicking in between.
For me, I feel the game was pretty much won and lost for the respective teams at scrumhalf, Francois Hougaard was impressive in all he did for the Bulls, his tactical kicking was spot on, his defense, his sniping runs and snappy service were all brilliant and lets not forget the game breaking try he made out of nothing. While on the other side of the coin Ricky Januarie fumbled nearly every ball, got caught behind the ruck on numerous occasions, delivered ball to the rookie flyhalf Kurt Coleman that was either above his head or where Coleman had to stop to take the ball behind him, Januarie all but ensured we lost any momentum we gathered and considering how we struggled to find any from set pieces, its a disgrace really.
As Sharks supporters you bemoan the fact that your team only seems to put together 40 minute performances, we as Stormer supporters had to wait 68 minutes till our team managed to play with any fluency and consistency, taking the ball up through multiple phases, holding onto it and actually making yards. Considering how we played up until that point and how it took a moment of magic from Hougaard to break the game, I doubt I was the only supporter thinking it was all but over for the Stormers. But we somehow managed to start a comeback against some brilliantly resilient defense from the Bulls to get an all important losing bonus point through a try from Andries Bekker which also lead to a pretty exciting final few minutes that showed how entertaining the game could have been had we thrown our all at the Bulls from the get go.
And I can’t talk about the game without giving a mention to Bulls captain Victor Matfield, who used all his experience and skill to make the Stormers lineout look silly, the Bulls only try coming from all the pressure placed on the Stormers hooker. Matfield’s protegé, Andries Bekker, had an off day at the office, while struggling in the lineout’s he also showed his frustration across the field where he mostly popped up on the wing, center or even at flyhalf instead of focusing on his primary role, winning the lineouts.
I’ve taken a quick look through the stats, and I know they need to be taken in context, but let me give you a couple highlights that I don’t think need too much context:
The Bulls made 11 handling errors, the biggest culprit was Hougaard with 5. While the Stormers made a mammoth 35 handling errors, with Ricky contributing 8 and Bryan Habana adding just one less, not good enough.
Penalties, the Bulls gave away 18 penalties to the Stormers 10. And one of the scariest stats I managed to find, the Bulls made 395m in the game, the Stormers? 1138m, and yet we only had 1 try to show for it. The Bulls also missed 32 tackles and made 193 while the Stormers missed 13 and made 111.
The loss leaves the Stormers needing a victory against the Cheetahs to secure the second spot on the log while the top log position has all but slipped out of their grip. If they beat the Cheetahs there is no way the Crusaders can overtake them since they have more win’s than them, I won’t even think of what will happen if they lose, its a must win, bonus point or not. Stormers also have the good news of welcoming Peter Grant back from injury, while it seems Coleman has injured an ankle and will most likely not feature this weekend, potentially leaving the door open for Earl Rose to cover for Grant off the bench.
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Nice one Mols! 😉
Thanks for a good read molly.
I am not upset about the loss because I called a Bulls win.
We need to beat the Cheetahs to end 2nd on the log which I’m sure we’ll achieve.
I won’t say anything about Ricky!! 👿
The stormers stand a better chance in winning the super 15 than the bulls…my team will eventually run out of gas..something has to give in…a sharks win maybe on the cards who knows
How long has Peter Grant been out injured? It seems like he has been doubtful for almost every game for months.
@Muzi (Comment 3) : You were saying the Stormers were going to beat the Bulls in their last game. Is this reverse psychology you’re trying?
@war1 (Comment 4) : Its been 4 weeks I think.
@Ice (Comment 1) : thanks
@wpw (Comment 2) : and thanks
@war1 (Comment 5) :
not at all hehehe i’m jut trying to remain humble lol
Grant has only played 1 game in the last 2 months apparently
Nice article. Scrumhalves play such a vital role and in many cases (especially in SA gameplans) take on some of the responsibilities of the flyhalf as well.
Sorry to say this the more the stormers lose the better never liked the stormer and never will.
Go cheetahs !!!! 😈
@vanmartin (Comment 10) : Morne Steyn looks good with Du preez but when playing with hougaard he struggles under pressure…you saw how he knocked on that ball with no pressure applied to him….
@Pokkel (Comment 9) : Was that the Chiefs game? Cause he crumbled, badly in that one, do we HAVE to count it? 😉
Big disparity in the penalty count. Kaplan was really not interested in penalising the Stormers at scrum time, opting to reset the scrum because the prop slipped as opposed to not being able to hold his end up.
Stormers are really heavy on their flyhalves usage 😯
You right Molly with these stats you do wonder how the Bulls managed to pull this one off.
@Muzi (Comment 12) : is fairy gonna be back for the sharks game ?
@rekinek (Comment 15) :
Earlier before any of the injuries, Morne mentioned that the Stormers were one injury away from a disaster (or similar) season. He didnt say what position that injury was to be in but I mentioned that I thought that it would be to flyhalf. This was during the time when Stormers were winning games by penalties and hardly scoring tries. Anyway soon afterwards the injuries happened but in all honesty the the stand ins have all risen to the occassion. Many other teams would have been knee deep in the dwang when using thier fifth choice flyhalves.
Nice one Mooly.
Interesting stats. They do show an important fact; the Bulls know how to knuckle down and make the yards, passes and tackles that count. Its why they are champions.
Regarding the Stormers, fact is that no team can be fluent when their halfbacks are not up to standard. No shame in losing when Grant is off and Ricky is playing crap.
Still shocking that you okes let Hoffman go.
@Big Fish (Comment 18) : Hoffman’s a sicknote 😉 😈
@Big Fish (Comment 18) : But seriously… We wouldn’t have played Hoffman if we had him, Januarie woulda been before him, sad but true.
@Salmonoid (Comment 17) : you’re right – even Duvenhage was good at 10.
@rekinek (Comment 21) : him, Gary van Aswegen, Lionel Cronje and Coleman have all been decent. We’ve been very lucky with cover at FH.
@rekinek (Comment 21) : oh, sorry, only saw the “even” part now, my bad.
Besides Ricky Abbott at scrumhalf (did he even make it to one ruck in time during the 2nd half? 🙄 ) the Stormers should be concerned that they lose matches AT HOME to quality teams.
Matches they should be winning if they want to be taken seriously as title contenders. 😐
Still, they’ve far exceeded by expectations for this season and can’t complain about a top of the conference finish and home semi. 😈
@molly (Comment 22) : so the problem is somewhere else.
I think the Stormers did very well in this year’s competition. They may have it more difficult now after loosing to the Bulls but IMO they’ve earned the right for it – it’s not like the next weekend’s game will be decisive for their qualification.
@McLovin (Comment 24) : that’s what I am thinking.
@McLovin (Comment 24) : at least they’ll get a trophy, mate. A lot more than we’re gonna get this season.
I don’t think that the loss against the Bulls has made the road anymore difficult.
Even if they won on Saturday, they would still have been in 2nd spot today.
And if I understand it correctly, which is unlikely most of the time, they can still finish top not?
The real ‘hard road’ would be finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th.
@robdylan (Comment 27) : Oh yeah, saw that for the first time the other day.
2nd trophy of the season.
great one Molly
the Stormers should have won imo
and i think they would of if that ref just let the game go on for a little while 😳
but in the old end if we can’t get through then i’m going for Stormers till the end
Black and White is all that
matters
@McLovin (Comment 24) : I am very worried about our home performances, at least they’ve all been close competitions, BUT from what I can remember we’ve thrown the wins away more than the opposition has earned them, which is a concern.
@molly (Comment 31) : that is a concern… you guys have already lost at home to most of the other play-off contenders. It’s only the Blues that you’ve beaten
@McLovin (Comment 28) : If we had gotten a BP win (however unlikely) we could have been on even points with the Reds, I think. Now we need the Reds to lose again… and us to get a BP win and we might stand a chance, two highly unlikely events, but still, we had a nice opportunity this week to make some ground and put the pressure on the Reds.
@chaz (Comment 30) : Thanks Chaz!
@molly (Comment 31) : Those decisions to go for the try instead of posts I really don’t understand.
They got away with it against the Bulls, sort of, but it cost us against the Crusaders. 😐
Then there was also two big calls by the refs that cost the Stormers a try in the Crusaders game, and who knows what would have happened had Kaplan played some advantage at the end on Saturday. 👿
@molly (Comment 33) : True.
@robdylan (Comment 32) : And the Blues wasn’t even a home game 🙁
@molly (Comment 37) : well, one would think that if you can beat them away, you should take them at home? 🙂
@McLovin (Comment 35) : Ag, we had lost alot of ground, so I can understand why he blew it. But I still didn’t like it. Can’t believe Habana got caught, back in the day no one would have touched him.
@robdylan (Comment 38) : we did beat the Bulls away… hopefully that was just an anomaly, we ARE strong at home, even against the Saders/Canes.
@molly (Comment 40) : oh ja… but that was the old Bulls. The new ones are better 🙂
Good Arti thanks Molly, thing is you guys played the Bulls. We played the lions. The level of our opposition is what makes this performance from the Sharks such a bitter pill to swallow.
@Ben (Comment 42) : 😉
and it tastes bitter
@Ben (Comment 42) : thanks Ben.
The Lions are a different team to previous years and they always raise their intensity for the derbies, nothing to feel too bad about.
@molly (Comment 44) : Good point, but still the thought of it. The Lions. 😉