Great game.....congrats to the Cheetahs

This is not going to be the Stormers year. Injuries and disastrous trades for Taute and Jantjies, have hampered the team. But from a Stormer's perspective what a series of self inflicted wounds. Joe not getting touch off the penalty and then he and van Aswegen kicking straight into touch. And that kick of Groom's eina. Not to be left out Kitshoff's handling errors and scrum penalties simply sank us. That last scrum should not happen to a top professional team.

One has to be immensely impressed by Burton Francis, what nerve and that one dead line kick apart, what fine judgement in general play. For the rest Ebersohn beat Jean handily once and had a fine game. Willie was a constant presence and Coenie simply obliterated the vastly overrated Kitshoff.

For the Stormers Bekker was huge, so was Vermeulen. Kolisi had some very good moments, but missed a few tackles. Aplon was the most dangerous player on the field, de Jongh did well on attack, but missed a few "forcing " tackles near the end. And Joe was the usual lucky packet.

But with Taute, who made the Cheetahs first try, playing along with Jantjies and Kitshoff .... we start with a three player handicap. Nor should Schroeder be playing S15 rugby....nor Rhodes.

In this competition you are as strong as your weakest link....and the Stormers have too many weakest links. Congrats Oom Mike on your 100% record this weekend.

Mozart

Fair assessment.  I think that Taute may be out for the season after that knee injury in any event.  

As for the rest - I believe the Stormers will have to seriously reconsider what to do with Kitshoff.  He could be blamed - but then people must remember that he does not get support from his hooker - Fourie is poor in that Department - and he also has Steenkamp behind him who is not really supporting him either.  Be it as it may - the Stormers scrummaging really disintegrated after he left the field.   Cilliers is even a worse scrummager - so they are in deep trouble.   Maybe when Liebenberg and Etzebeth come back - the situation would improve.

The Stomers really needs to re-orgnise their backline completely.   It iss at this stage a lone fight by De Villiers when it comes to defence - with the rest all needing a kick under their backsides.    Jantjies could have been yellow or even red-carded for his tackle on Strauss.   De Jong made fewer tackles than the number of tackles he missed.    Aplon was reasonable - but for thae case where he got isolated behind the tryline and only way out was a pss to Pretorius and a kick that left the Cheetahs still on attack.   There only hope is that Van den Heever and Habana come back from injury soon.  They can then play De Allende at 12 and De Villiers at 13.

The latter combination worked well against the Chiefs and is to my mind the real answer to their center problem.

As for the flyhalf - Coetzee made a mess by letting Catrakillis go and contracting Jantjies.   The latter now played in six games - five flops and one average game.   I foresaw what was going to happen in postings in early February and what I thought woud happen - did happen, tragically so for the Stormers.    The now have only the inexperienced Van Aswegen and Swiel to fall back on.   Another match for Jantjies is really unthinkable.

We scrummed better against the Saders test quality front row than against the Cheetahs. Much maligned Cilliers is a more reliable scrummager than Kitshoff.

Mozart

Agree with you about that one.  It really is a mess

 What the hell did Taute do wrong, I thought he had a good game until that horrific injury. Also do not get what the issue with Kitshoff is. The Stormers scrum had the upperhand over the Cheetahs in the first half........Coenie was good, but I dont recall the beating you are on about Moz? 

 What the hell did Taute do wrong, I thought he had a good game until that horrific injury. Also do not get what the issue with Kitshoff is. The Stormers scrum had the upperhand over the Cheetahs in the first half........Coenie was good, but I dont recall the beating you are on about Moz? 

Taute's amble back was a direct cause of the first try. A crisp fullback would have snapped that ball up much faster. It was in the commentary in case you feel I'm being too harsh Dave. And Kitshoff gave two penalties in the last 10 minutes....including in the scrum at the 80th minute, which securing, would have given the win. He knocked on twice, one leading to the first try.  He had a nightmare game.

 I dont recall the Taute incident, will have a look. I thought he had a far better game until he got injured.

I thought the Stormers scrum had the better of the Cheetahs, despite having the no so great scrummager in Fourie at 2. I have been impressed with Kitshoff and Malherbe in the scrums this year. 

If he gave away penalties in the last 10 min that must have been down to fatigue as he scrummed well up to that point. I thought the Stormers scrum had the slight edge. As for that knock on that led to the try  - it was a horrific pass from Groom - it was delivered to Kitshoff's ankles if I remember correctly.

Moz you have Kitshoff wrong. 

On the positive side, its good to see Coenie developing nicely at 3. We could do with him turning into a dominant tighthead as he is so strong in general play

I would like nothing more than for Kitshoff to emerge as a great loosehead. He was one of my 5 picks among the youngsters last year....but I'm afraid the scrumming is not there. I'm no expert, but he just seems to be reaching too much at contact.....without immediate support he goes down.

Coenie is recovering far better than I feared with the neck....I'm still sceptical, but I agree he is a fabulous player in the tight/loose.

 In my opinion, Kitshoff and in particular Malherbe have come on in a big way this year in the scrums. The calls made with the props going down seems a bit of a lottery to me. Both props seem to go down together when they do give.......the ref penalises one and the commenators often have a contrary view.

Take the one Saders scrum against the Sharks. The Saders had the Sharks on the back foot and Cockett was pinged for scruming inwards......its such a tough call. One prop is often pinged for hinging, but at the same time his opposite number is lying flat on the ground. We have slipped binds when the opposite prop is collapsing to the ground. How are you meant to hold a bind when your opposite man is going down.

Its a slippery art at scrum time and I doubt the refs get half the calls right.