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Stormers also smash the Sharks

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:05

Strong start: Stormers captain Schalk Burger chased by Sharks rival John Smit

The Stormers continued their impressive Super 14 pre-season form when they smashed the Sharks 29-14 in the final of the tri-series matches at Newlands on Friday.

Added to their 54-12 win over the Western Force last Saturday, it means the men from Cape Town will kick off the Super 14 season as one of the favourites in a fortnight.

For the Sharks, who also lost 0-26 to the Force in midweek, there is plenty of work to do if they want to make an impact. At least they made some progress from their loss to the Force.

Some interesting things happened at historic Newlands on Friday before a reasonable crowd which was certainly noisy, sometimes unreasonably so.

First, there was the use by the referee of the TV monitor in in-goal to determine off his own bat if a try had been scored or not, thus replacing the television match official It was of doubtful value as it downgraded the drama usually associated with a referral to the mystery man floating about somewhere. Secondly, it must have been hard for the referee, all hot and bothered and filled with the immediate past, to make a calm, step-by-step judgement the way a specialist TMO can. In fact on this occasion referee Craig Joubert had experienced TMO Shaun Veldsman to help him.

There were some interesting players. First there was the 27-year-old Puma prop/hooker Eusebio Guiñazú from Mendoza via Toulon and Agen. He came on late in the second half.

Then there was Steve Meyer, a 25-year-old Durban boy who has been playing for Perpignan for some time, suffered injuries, played in a Heineken Cup match against Northampton Saints a fortnight ago and then got the call to help the Sharks who had lost Juan Martín Hernández and Ruan Pienaar to injury. Perpignan said OK and Meyer came home.

Also playing for the Sharks was Willem Alberts, who is the subject of a contractual dispute between the Sharks and the Golden Lions.

It may not have been obvious but Bryan Habana was playing for the Stormers. His main job, it seems, was to chase kicks, making him the most expensive ball-chasers in the world. He was substituted in the second half, surely not to rest him.

The match started with a minute's silence to honour the great Ruben Kruger who died on Wednesday. The silence did not quite work, which was more the fault of the decrepit sound system than spectator ill-manners. Too loud in parts, it is inaudible in most parts. But then the crowd was at its uncouth best, booing kickers. When an opponent kicks at goal at Thomond Park, you can here a pin drop; at Newlands you cannot hear yourself speak.

The match? Excellent in parts - excellent when it was vigorous, dull as ditch water when it was stodgy.

It was certainly the best of the three tri-series matches and one that the Stormers richly deserved to win. Three times the Stormers had exhilarating breaks, but then they also bashed over and over again. They had four five-metre line-outs and three five-metre scrums. The Sharks had one of each without looking like scoring, but then their try from a long way back was a splendid one, the best of the warm night.

The Sharks started with a will as they climbed into tackles in a way that they had not done against the Western Force. As a result they dominated the tackle. They were also better at the line-out. But the scrums were a mess - 14 scrums and six penalties, five against the Sharks. Playing Jannie du Plessis at loosehead seemed not to have worked. The Sharks had just four scrums in the entire match, none in the first half, three five metres from their own line and one five metres from the Stormers' line.

It was a match of many penalties - 32 in all, 15 at the tackle. Interestingly, because it was the tackler who was targetted, there was not one at the tackle for holding on.

The Stormers kicked off and scored first when Keegan Daniel was penalised for an air tackle at a line-out and Joe Pietersen goaled. 3-0 after two minutes.

The Sharks attacked a good period and could well have scored had bearded Rory Kockott not missed two early penalties - awarded against Schalk Burger. Instead when Kockott was penalised at a tackle, Pietersen made it 6-0 after nine minutes.

Francois Louw, who later became the first recipient of a yellow card, was penalised at tackle and this time Kockott goaled an easy penalty. 6-3 after 12 minutes. Then came a thriller of a try.

The Stormers threw in deep into a line-out six metres inside the Sharks' half on the Stormers' right. They threw in deep and Duane Vermeulen rose high into the sky and dropped the ball down to Dewaldt Duvenhage who passed to Schalk Burger. He passed immediately to Peter Grant on his left and Grant with a splendid pass gave the ball inside to right wing Gio Aplon, who cut clean through and then on the 22 gave to Burger who pounded his way, blond mane flowing, to the line for a splendid try - which Pietersen failed to convert. 11-3 after 15 minutes.

Kockott kicked two penalties, his slow approach to the ball forcing the uncouth to extend booing lungs. Pietersen goaled a scrum penalty against Jannie du Plessis, Francois Louw was sent to the sin bin for repeated infringements by his team and a spectator in the stand did well to catch the ball cleanly and shove it up his Western Province jersey.

During the break an overweight, bushy-haired, goateed grandfather, kicking barefooted with his toe, goaled a kick to win R5 000.

Lots of changes became a feature of the second half, as both sides used all 11 bench players and players off were substituted back. The Stormers had just one change at the start of the half - Pieter Myburgh for Burger.

Duvenhage kicked out of defence and the Sharks counterattacked from deep with slick hands which included a great catch by Keegan Daniel and splendid work by Stefan Terblanche before Daniel burst clear, drew Pietersen and sent Luzuko Vulindlu racing for the corner on his right. 16-14 which became 14-14 with a Pietersen penalty. Pietersen kicks beautifully but he still missed three penalty kicks at goal.

The Stormers then went on a hectic attack on the Sharks' line with three five-metre line-outs and a five-metre scrum, as Jannie du Plessis sat in the sin bin. The Stormers mauled the third five-metre line-out and drove Tiaan Liebenberg over.

Write down 29 January 2010, after 56 minutes in the match for that is when the referee called time-out and went off to consult the monitor himself. That was a rugby first. It ended with the referee's telling the world that Liebenberg had indeed scored. Pietersen converted. 24-14 after 56 minutes.

The Stormers were soon back on the attack as Aplon, such an electric runner, sped down the right. Liebenberg carried it on and chipped. Aplon got their first but stumbled and fell with the line beckoning.

After Jean Deysel went to the sin bin for a high tackle on Aplon, the Stormers brought on many substitutes. One of them was Fijian Sireli Naqelevuki.

From a  scrum the Stormers engineered an overlap which set Pietersen speeding clear. He chipped, chased and then, line open in front of him, knocked the falling ball on. Then from yet another five-metre line-out the Stormers battered their way over and the referee again played TMO, this time deciding that Vermeulen had not grounded the ball.

The Stormers won a line-out on their right and went left to Frikkie Welsh who cut back to the right and the next thing there was big Sireli Naqelevuki ploughing over opponents to score in the right corner.

The Stormers deserved their win. For the Sharks there was the chance to evaluate their playing talent after giving all their players a good chunk of rugby in these two matches.

For the Stormers:
Tries: Burger, Liebenberg, Naqelevuki
Con: Pietersen
Pens: Pietersen 4

For the Sharks:
Try: Vulindlu
Pens: Kockott 3

Yellow cards: Francois Louw (Stormers, 38 - repeated infringements), Jannie du Plessis (Sharks, 55 - repeated infringements), Jean Deysel (Sharks, 63 - foul play, high tackle)

Teams:

Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger (captain), 5 Andries Bekker, 4 De Kock Steenkamp, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements - from: Deon Fourie, JC Kritzinger, Eusebio Guinazu, Anton van Zyl, Pieter Louw, Bolla Conradie, Lionel Cronjé, Sireli Naqelevuki, Frikkie Welsh, Fabian Juries.

The Sharks: 15 Patrick Lambie, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Odwa Ndungane, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Gerhard Mostert, 4 Johann Muller, 3 John Smit (captain), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Jannie du Plessis.
Replacements - from: Stefan Terblanche, Luzuko Vulindlu, Riaan Swanepoel, Lwazi Mvovo, Ryan Kankowski, Steven Sykes, Alistair Hargreaves, Craig Burden, Tendai Mtawarira, Charl McLeod, Steve Meyer, Patric Cilliers.

Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Joey Salmans, Matt Kemp
TMO: Shaun Veldsman

By Paul Dobson

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