The DHL Stormers left it till the very end to come away with a 1 point victory over the Hurricanes in Cape Town last night.
Allister Coetsee will be happy to have the all important W next to a home fixture but will certainly be a concerned man, his charges went into half time trailing 12 6 and only took the lead and the win in the 78th minutes thanks to a well taken conversion by Demitri Catrakilis.
The home team should have had a comfortable lead in the first half but instead their display was en error ridden mess with bad decision making , handling errors and lost lineouts the order of the day. Their much vaunted defence also seems to have been left behind at the Hermanus pre season training ground, the Hurricanes scored two tries in quck succession in the first half, the second being a beauty by Cory Jane who dived to collect a well placed cross kick from Hadleigh Parks.
The Stormers seemed to find some composure in the second half and showed great resilience to repel some sustained attacking pressure from the Hurricanes while making some inroads of their own. Jean de Villiers instructed Catrakilis to kick for the corner late in the game but this resulted in a 5th lost lineout and a 2nd consecutive loss looked a real possibility but somehow the rugby gods decided to smile down on the Capse side, they won a penalty in a similar area and held onto a a lineout ball which resulted in the rolling mauls being set for Deon Fourie to score. Catrakilis held his nerve to nail the conversion to make the score 19 – 18.
The Hurricanes gave the home supporters a case of severe anxiety as they decided to go down swinging, launching wave after wave off attack at the Stormers defence, the defenders managed to maintain their discipline and held on long enough for the ‘Canes to make an error.
Scorers
DHL Stormers
Catrakilis 4 pen 1 con
Fourie 1 try
Hurricanes
Barret 2 pen 1 con
Savea 1 try
Jane 1 try
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That kind of display won’t cut it in Christchurch. Even though the Crusaders are looking a little wobbly themselves, I can’t see them being as generous to the Stormers on their own home ground.
@The Great Couch Shark (Comment 1) : I can’t disagree, the scrums were decent and at times actually very good but that lineout. Eish! The Carizza injury is a blessing
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 2) : Yeah, Carriza looked so out of depth in this match, ineffective ball carrying, slipped a tackle, stupid penalties. “Deer in headlights” kind of performance
@Ludz (Comment 3) : He was responsible for the Lions first try last week
@Ludz (Comment 3) : @Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 4) : That’s some shrewd recruiting by AC there…! 😆
@Culling Song (Comment 5) : Wonder what Hilton Lobberts is up to these days
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 6) :
I wonder what Nico Wegner is up to these days. Surely cant be worse.
@VinChainSaw (Comment 7) : 10 days to go 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 8) :
Ah ha! Indeed it is! Looking forward to it buddy…
@VinChainSaw (Comment 7) : Ag Kokkie will be back soon so that will help, the poor handling though…eish.