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Stormers race to the top

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:19

Stormers sublime in Hamilton: Captain Schalk Burger leads the charge

The Stormers raced to the top of the Super 14 standings with a sublime 49-15 win over a willing but out-gunned Chiefs team at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Friday. It made it two-from-two for the Stormers on their New Zealand tour.

The six tries to two victory - which is also the Stormers biggest win over the Chiefs - saw the Stormers join compatriots the Bulls, the defending champions, on 33 points at the top of the table.

However, the Stormers superior points difference ensured that they will be in first place for at least the next 24 hours - before the Bulls and Crusaders play their week 10 matches.

It was a game in which the Stormers put their full array of skills on display - not just the sublime handling by forwards and backs, but also their admirably tight defence, which has now conceded only 11 tries in nine games. Then there were the set-pieces - stealing line-outs from the Chiefs and demolishing their scrums, plus their dominance at the breakdown. They were accurate in so much of what they did, with their support play and offloading exceptional as well.

The 34-point winning margin beats the Stormers previous biggest - 14 points in a 29-15 win in Cape Town in 2001. The 49 points the Stormers scored is also the most ever against the Chiefs, beating the 45 they collected in a 45-33 win in Hamilton in 2002.

The humbling of the Chiefs was completed in the 79th minute when the home team had hooker Vern Kamo yellow-carded after their front row had stood up repeatedly under scrummaging pressure.

"The Stormers were on fire," said Chiefs captain Liam Messam in his post-match comment, while Stormers skipper Schalk Burger described his team's performance as "awesome".

And anyone who watched the game would agree that they were both spot-on.

The match started with the visitors enjoying a substantial territorial advantage. After a brilliant break by Gio Aplon, Sireli Naqelevuki lost the ball forward just short of the goal-line, but the Chiefs were penalised at the five-metre scrum, Peter Grant goaled and the Stormers led 3-0 after 10 minutes.

In the first 15 minutes the Stormers had played over 80 per cent of the game in the Chiefs half, but when the home team did manage to get into the Stormers half, the visitors were penalised at a ruck and in the 18th minute Stephen Donald goaled to level the score at 3-3.

Soon after the restart, Burger crossed for what looked to be the first try of the game but Tiaan Liebenberg had obstructed a potential tackler and referee Steve Walsh brought the Stormers back for an offside infringement by Sione Lauaki. Grant goaled to give the Stormers a 6-3 lead.

Then in the 23rd minute came one of the great team tries of the season when the Stormers ran the ball from inside their 22.

The ball was passed from player to player as Jaque Fourie, Andries Bekker, Burger and Liebenberg each handled twice in the movement, and after Francois Louw was stopped just short of the tryline, the Chiefs ran out of defenders and Grant's long pass found Bryan Habana unmarked out wide.

This had been one of the most spectacular, best constructed tries of the year - and perhaps in the history of Super Rugby as well.

Grant converted and the Stormers led 13-3.

The Chiefs threatened briefly on attack but were driven back into their half. They kicked aimlessly and Aplon, fielding the ball 20 metres inside his own half, gave a magnificent demonstration of skilful counter-attack, stepping past a host of defenders before feeding Duane Vermeulen on his outside. Vermeulen finished, Grant goaled from near touch and the Stormers led 20-3 after 28 minutes.

The Chiefs hit back just on half-time when Lauaki ran powerfully off the back of a scrum and handed off Burger before offloading to Tanerau Latimer who scored under the posts. Donald converted and the Chiefs had reduced the lead to 20-10.

The Stormers scored another marvellous try soon after the break when Burger and Bekker ran superbly to commit defenders on the right touchline before the Stormers moved the ball wide left and Habana drew defenders inside before passing to Liebenberg on the left touchline. The hooker scored, Grant converted from close range and the visitors led 27-10 after 44 minutes.

Grant goaled his third penalty to take the lead to 30-10 after 52 minutes and then the Stormers scored their bonus-point try after Burger had again played a big role in initiating a passing movement. Sireli Naqelevuki rounded off, Grant goaled and the visitors led 37-10 with 25 minutes to go.

The Stormers scored their fifth try when from a long, carefully controlled line-out driving maul, they were stopped a metre short of the goal-line. From the ruck, Dewaldt Duvenage fed Bekker out wide and the lock stretched to score the try - a reward for excellent team execution.

Grant missed the conversion but the Stormers led 42-10 with 15 minutes to play.

The Stormers brought on subs and lost defensive focus briefly. The Chiefs took advantage and from a rare Chiefs attacking sortie, Tim Nanai-Williams showed wonderful skill in grounding the ball, as he was tackled, centimetres inside the touch-in-goal line (42-15 after 68 minutes).

But the Stormers were not done yet done and two minutes later, after they succeeded in putting the Chiefs under concerted pressure inside their 22, an alert Deon Fourie (on at hooker  for Liebenberg) crossed for the visitors sixth try. Willem de Waal, on for Grant, converted (49-15).

The game drew to a close in almost stagnant fashion as the Chiefs were penalised repeatedly at a series of scrums on their five-metre line and eventually substitute hooker Vern Kamo was sin-binned for standing up under pressure.

The game ended with no further scoring but it had been a huge triumph for the Stormers, who had delivered their most complete performance of the season.

The Chiefs had offered individual intent and determination, but they made too little impact as a team on attack. Their execution was poor as they struggled to put meaningful attacking movements together. Their defence was shown up as well as they battled to stop Stormers attacking raids and they were unable to halt the continuity of the visiting team, whose support and offloading were superb.

If the Stormers had been very good against the Blues in Auckland last week, they were brilliant against the Chiefs in Hamilton this week.

Every aspect of their game was outstanding, from set-piece play to everything they did around the field on attack and defence, and every player will have been happy with his performance.

They had said during the week that they were aiming at accuracy in every aspect of their play and they succeeded handsomely in that.

Man of the Match: This was a real team effort from the Stormers with every player making a substantial contribution to the excellent performance. In the backline Gio Aplon and Jaque Fourie were brilliant while Tiaan Liebenberg and loose forwards Schalk Burger, Duane Vermeulen and Francois Louw were stand-outs up front. But the Man of the Match must be Andries Bekker, who did everything one could ask of a tight forward - plus make tackles and pop up repeatedly around the field to show wonderful pace and skill for so big a man.

The scorers:

For the Chiefs:
Tries: Latimer, Nanai-Williams
Con: Donald
Pen: Donald

For the Stormers:
Tries: Habana, Vermeulen, Liebenberg, Naqelevuki, Bekker, D Fourie
Cons: Grant 4, De Waal
Pens: Grant 3

Yellow card: Vern Kamo (Chiefs, 79 - repeated infringements, standing up in the scrums)

Teams:

Chiefs: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Stephen Donald, 11 Dwayne Sweeney, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Sione Lauaki, 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Liam Messam (captain), 5 Culum Retallick, 4 Craig Clarke, 3 Ben Afeaki, 2 Hika Elliot, 1 Toby Smith.
Replacements: 16 Vern Kamo, 17 Nathan White, 18 Romana Graham, 19 Colin Bourke 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Callum Bruce, 22 Jackson Willison.

Stormers: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Sireli Naqelevuki, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 François Louw, 6 Schalk Burger (captain), 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 JD Moller.
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 JC Kritzinger, 18 Anton van Zyl, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Willem de Waal, 22 Tim Whitehead.

Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Shane McDermott (New Zealand)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)

By Len Kaplan

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