The Stormers recorded a 45-14 win over the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington on Saturday afternoon in their first Super Rugby warmup game of the season.
In a game in which many of their front-line stars didn’t feature, the Stormers nevertheless showed that they have enviable depth in their squad, with a number of fringe players putting up their hands for Super Rugby inclusion when the campaign proper gets under way. Ironically, it was a Boland player, scrumhalf Bolla Conradie, who stood out most for the Stormers, putting in a great performance against his provincial team mates and scoring a good try to boot.
The Stormers opted to keep things tight for the most part, with prop Frans Malherbe barrelling over for the opening score, duly converted by former Bulls and Lions flyhalf Burton Francis. Conradie’s try followed soon after, before the Stormers were awarded a penalty try, taking their lead to 21-0 after just 17 minutes. Some concerted Boland resistance was then held off, before the Stormers again scored just before the break, with wing Danie Poolman doing the honours.
Boland were not done in the half, though and were finally rewarded as centre Jonathan Francke scored a try for them after the half-time hooter had sounded. Ricardo Croy’s conversion saw the hosts trail the Stormers 7-28 at the break.
A second try to Boland, courtesy of captain Junior Bester, narrowed the gap to 14-28 after 47 minutes, but in a second half that lacked structure due to the rolling replacements used, it was the Stormers who went on to score three more times, with flanker Rohan Kitshoff, eighthman Nizaam Carr and replacement hooker Tiaan Liebenberg all getting in on the action.
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Just about watched this game, was impressed by Bolla and Carr. Jp Du Plessis looks like he can do a thing or 2
The stormers can feel happy, and bolla did surprise me a bid, was all over the place, looked very hungry to proof his worth…
The sugar rush from christmas pudding was still evident as the players reached the 70min mark…
But that’s to be expected
Good for a warm up and tested the depth of the Stormers
There were enough hairstyles on parade to make Wes a happy man.
39 degrees celsius. Now that’s what you call a ‘warm-up’ game.
Ja, I’m afraid to say that the papers seem to have caught the JP du Plessis disease as well now… we’ll hear a lot more about this young man.
@robdylan (Comment 7) : Hehehe to be fair Rob he did look more than decent. I think Carr caught most of the column inches
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 8) : ja, I’m sure he looked great… against Boland 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 9) : and it was fresh legs against very tired ones, 😉
@robdylan (Comment 9) : Well they cant exactly pen – Stormers played Boland and won. Everyone was bollocks.
Games like these are good to judge a teams depth and fitness, even versus soft oposition. I think that Nick Groom will push hard for a starting spot this year.
@Talent (Comment 12) : I personally hope he pushes Schreuder out of the way
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 13) : they are both good ,but groom is good
@robdylan (Comment 9) : Usually what happens is that some over-zealous hack will call him “The Next “, and then another overpaid hack will interview him and ask him what it feels like to be compared to , and the poor young guy will get all embarrassed and self-conscious.
Happens every time.
@CapeShark (Comment 15) : Hmmm, seems like i used square brackets and they got interpreted as HTML code, whoops! Anyway what I was saying is that they usually compare the poor young guy to an alltime great, which is really unfair to put on a 19 year olds shoulders.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 1) : I’m glad for jp du plessis.hope he can make the stormers sr squad.
@CapeShark (Comment 16) : especially down there in weepee 😐
So a Stormers team comprising mostly players who will play Vodacom Cup for WP when the Super15 gets underway thump Boland. Boland if you recall gave the EP Kings a bit of a hiding to win the Currie cup B section at the end of 2011.
It will be interesting to see how EP, who seem hell bent on securing a S15 franchise spot by any means, do in their games against super rugby franchises as part of the warm up schedule.
@robdylan (Comment 7) : I can’t believe we did not sign him…he is on a junior contract with province…and he can be released on notice. I wish we could sign him ASAP…give him a third of Jouberts salary Plum!
Yes Plum, screw Mjekevu, Jordaan and Whitehead, all great talents, and sign some unknown centre who could barely get himself a contract ast year.
Back our own youth and what we have, ffs!!
While we are at it, I hear Bolla Conradie had a decent game against a kak B division team, why don’t we sign him as well…
@CapeShark (Comment 15) : No such thing as an overpaid hack, dude. We’re all underpaid! Even the good ones! heheheh!
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 11) : ha ha… at last… an honest match report 🙂
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 21) : he wasn’t such an “unknown” at sbr level ..and he was good enough to get a sr contract .now he is back in sa and let’s wish the player the best with his future,wherever that may be.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 21) : back our own talent and then you mention whitehead and mjekevu lol
@bergshark (Comment 26) : ah Rich… I’m afraid he’s got you on that point mate… 🙂
@bergshark (Comment 26) :
But why buy another then?
My point is, you cannot keep on buying and buying every half decent player who plays a good 20 minutes?!
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 28) : Advantage Ferguson…
(this is fun)
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 28) : read my comment25 again. I’m glad that he is back in sa and having the opp to play for a local sr team rather than an aus one.
Wouldve liked to have seen the sharks offer him a contract back in 2009(personal opinion) -but from info I had,no one from the sharks approached him.
but why not offer him a contract like the one he currently has at weepee and see if he maybe signs? Not a sr contract -that he must earn with his performances on the field and how he impresses the coaches at training.
But that would be a luxury if the budget is tight.
Need to save every cent for frans steyn 😀