Ex Supersport:
The bulk of the derbies that dominate the early part of the Vodacom Super Rugby season are now behind them and now comes the litmus test for South African teams as a powerful(?) but smarting Chiefs team prepares to tour the country.
The Chiefs play the high riding DHL Stormers at Newlands on Saturday in what has become a top of the log clash and the pressure will be on more than usual for the hosts in that the Chiefs will be targeting both games they play here now that they have unexpectedly dropped a game to the Highlanders. The Chiefs travel to Durban to play the Cell C Sharks the following week.
The Stormers have joined the Hurricanes in being the revelation of the first month of the season. The Hurricanes weren’t in action this past weekend but enjoyed their bye with three wins in three starts in the bank, and all of those victories far from home (Johannesburg, Pretoria and Perth). They will fancy their chances of extending their winning streak when they host the battling Blues in Palmerston North on Friday.
Duane Vermeulen’s Stormers have a chance of going clear at the top and cementing their dominance of the South African conference battle against the Chiefs, and given how comfortably they have won their two games against the more favoured local opponents, the Bulls and the Sharks, the match will provide an interesting test of the state of the nation.The Blues have already suffered thrice at the hands of South African teams this season – Stormers and Cheetahs away and now the Lions at home – but the Hurricanes won both their games against local opposition when they were here and it is teams like the Chiefs and Crusaders that are the proper measure of the strength of New Zealand rugby. The Chiefs in particular have marked themselves as the team to chase this year and will be eager to prove in South Africa that their shock defeat in Hamilton to the underdog Highlanders was an aberration.
That was a bizarre game, and the Chiefs will clearly be working on their accuracy after dominating possession and territory to a large extent over the 80 minutes only to be kept at bay by a tenacious Highlanders unit. The Chiefs looked like they had recovered from an 11 point deficit to win the game when their scrum took control in the second half, but the Highlanders’ fitness made the difference as they came back in the last quarter hour to win it with two penalties.
With the Bulls winning fairly comfortably in Bloemfontein, the local team with conference aspirations under the most pressure is the Sharks, who were okay for the first half hour against the Stormers but then fell away badly after that.
The way they fell away once the Stormers had come back into the game after being under early pressure with a try scored off a fortunate bounce of the ball should be disturbing for Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold. There also seems to be a distinct lack of energy about the Sharks at times, and the work-rate of some of the players may need to be looked at.
Certainly at this stage of the season the Stormers are proving the theory that having the most Boks is possibly a poisoned chalice in a World Cup year. The Cape side had only three Boks in their ranks when they beat a Bulls team with 13 internationals at the start of the season, and there was a similar imbalance against the Sharks and yet by the end of the game they were plainly dominant and the better team.
A lot has been done right by the Stormers in the early part of the season, but perhaps the area worthy of most commendation is the scrumming. The three first half heels against the head were the product of good striking rather than the Stormers pushing the Sharks off the ball, but by the end of the game they were starting to do the latter too.
The lineout that didn’t function in the first half was put right in the second and the Stormers’ dominance in all phases, with the breakdown problems of the week before against the Lions emphatically being eradicated, effectively shut the Sharks out of the game after halftime.
While the Stormers were the best South African team at the weekend, perhaps the Lions are the side that is worthy of most praise. The Blues enjoyed enough ball in their game in Albany to win by a comfortable margin yet the Lions stuck manfully to their task and showed great commitment and tenacity to record their first win of the season and a morale boost strike away from home.
On the whole the past weekend didn’t provide the greatest advertisement for Super Rugby, with the Cape Town derby being too error ridden, while several teams, the Waratahs being the obvious example, are just taking their time to hit their straps and are some way short at the moment of the form we might expect from them later.
Sharks fans will hope that holds true for their team for a lot of improvement is necessary if they are to get through a must win game against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this week and then follow up with a strong performance in the equally important game against the Chiefs that follows it.
Chiefies the Stormers are ready for you and be sure the Sharsk will also be up for the game. Ouch!!!
Brycy JW and all kbbs - keep your feet on the ground and your hopes on the floor!
