I was told after posting a few observations that Jantjies had a good game by Dave, that Vorster ran past de Jongh twice by Mike, that the WP scrum was dominant by Dave and that Malherbe never got a scrumming penalty by Mike. Mostly wrong impressions. Here goes:
1) Jantjies had a good game:
* Minute 1.22 Cat runs through Jantjies
* Minute 36.30 Jantjies drops out directly into touch
* Minute 47 He throws a hospital pass in front of his posts.
* Minute 51.30 Jantjies throws a couple of hospital passes to runners who are gobbled up by Etzebeth...then kicks aimlessly on Kolbe who runs, regathers and puts Carr away for a try.
* Minute 57.54 Jantjies throws an unexpected pass to Acker who controls with difficulty and is thumped and turned.
* Minute 61.34 Jantjies misses touch from behind the line Kolbe gathers, drops for goal but misses.
* Minute 64.40 A low, wobbly pass from Jantjies is dropped by Mnisi...Jantjies exits stage right.
2 Vorster ran past de Jongh twice.
In fact Vorster beat 5 defenders, none of whom was de Jongh. But at minute 27.44 Carr easily beats Vorster. He also got overpowered and beaten by de Allende at minute 41, dumped by Kitshoff at minute 5.25, drawn out of line to release Etzebeth at minute 10.40
* Minute 18.23 he gathers a kick ahead and beats Mbonami....he then disappears until minte 62.15
* Minute 62.15 Vorster gets an inside pass and beats a pathetic Kolisi tackle and Mbonami again.
* Minute 80.17 Vorster badly beats de Allende who had him in his sights...to keep the Lions moving.
* Minute 81.28 Vorster beats Coleman and makes crucial metres.....seconds later de Jongh who is on the other side of the park makes the crucial steal to save the game.
3 The WP scrum dominated.
This is true insofar as it goes the Stormers got a tighthead and 3 penalties....the Lions 2 penalties at scrum time. But most contests were close and each pack had their moments. There are two scrums, one at the end of the game, that I missed.
* Minute 12.21 The Lions dominate the hit... a second shove from the Stormers but Kitshoff draws a penalty for scrumming round.
* Minute 19.35 ...3 resets and then the Lions penalized for an early shove.
* Minute 23.56 more collapsed scrums and Vd Merwe penalized for over extending
* Minute 38 vd Merwe penalized.
* Minute 43.01 Stormers edge a messy scrum
* Minute 49.46 Kitshoff dominates the scrum, Stormers tighthead. If there is any dominance in these scrums it's Kitshoff who is vastly improved on a year ago.
* Minute 56.30 scrums collapses but play goes on.
* Minute 66 Scrum collapses and Stormers penalized.
4 Malherbe wasn't penalized at scrum time.
Yes he was. Malherbe and vd Merwe were both over extending....every call could have gone either way. At minute 66 the call came that "Blue 3 over extended"....Malherbe.
This was an interesting set of circs. Against Marcel vd Merwe....Schalk van der Merwe was scrumming up and popping Marcel. Against Malherbe he was falling flat as is Malherbe's wont. It would be more reassuring if our tightheads maintained position.
That's it.
