Stormers power to second spot
by Gavin Rich | 13 March 2010 (22:12)
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| Jaque Fourie © Gallo Images |
The Vodacom Stormers produced another comprehensive, complete performance as they buried the Hurricanes 37-13 to power into second spot on the Super 14 log at Newlands on Saturday night.
Blow-by-blow scoring
It is a rare thing for two South African teams to be leading the southern hemisphere competition, but that is the reality after five rounds, with the champion Vodacom Bulls in the pound seats with a one point lead over the Stormers and with a game in hand on all the other teams.
The Crusaders were good in beating the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday, but if the Bulls are looking for the main challengers to their current hegemony in the southern hemisphere, they could do a lot worse than start taking the threat posed by the Stormers quite seriously.
The Hurricanes scored two late tries when the match had become frenetic and lost its structure, but by then the Stormers had already wrapped up their four try bonus point and were simply sailing to victory. Those two late scores mean the Stormers have now conceded four in five games, which is still an outstanding record.
That is particularly so if you consider that they are making try scoring look so much easier than it used to be for the Cape team, with the four try bonus point being completed for the second successive week.
They scored five tries in this game, and unlike last week against the Highlanders, when Bryan Habana scored the fourth try off the last move of the game, they did not leave it late. The Stormers were in complete control in the first half, as shown by their 20-3 half-time lead, and the manner in which they scored their three tries should send an ominous warning to future opponents.
What they said was that this Stormers team has more than just one way to score and win. The first two tries were the product of some great passing and drawing of the opposition which created the opportunities for the awesome thrust of an inform Sireli Naqelevuki and the pace of Joe Pietersen. The third, which came on the stroke of half-time, was the product of the almost freakish long distance mauling drive that is now becoming the trademark of the Stormers.
Certainly when the Stormers had a throw-in at a lineout near the halfway, the Hurricanes would not have imagined they would be 17 points at the break as they were within a minute of the half-time hooter.
But up the field the Stormers rolled, moving ever closer and almost inexorably towards a tryline that had seemed impossibly far when it started. Eventually the maul was ended when Stormers captain Schalk Burger burst off in a quest to score. He was held up, but by then the Hurricanes defence was in such disarray that a hole had to open up, which it did for the outstanding No8 Duane Vermeulen.
But it was Naqelevuki who walked away with the man of the match award, and deservedly so. The big Fijian has often been maligned in the Cape during the four years since Nick Mallett first brought him here, but in the past two matches he has shown the value that can be added with the metres he gains in breaking through tackles and thrusting the Stormers across the advantage line.
On a day when the Stormers just made no mistakes for the Hurricanes to feast on and camped in their half, the thrust provided by Naqelevuki in the early parts of the game played a big role in forcing them into a catch-up role that they were never going to win.
The right wing thundered down the his touchline for the first Stormers try after just nine minutes to set the tone for the match after the Hurricanes had been turned over and Jaque Fourie had drawn his man perfectly to create the space for Joe Pietersen, who popped the ball inside for Naqelevuki to score.
It was the same combination who struck again 23 minutes later, this time Naqelevuki creating the thrust before passing for the fullback to score. That made it 13-3 to the Stormers after 32 minutes, and a team as good defensively as the Stormers are were never going to lose from there.
Not that it was just the Naqelevuki and Pietersen show. Far from it, in fact. It was a performance that included all the features that accounted for the earlier Stormers victims, such as the anticipated stupendous defensive effort that until the last 10 minutes had the Hurricanes repeatedly running into blind alleys and brick walls.
There were also some new things about the Stormers, with their off-loading in the tackle and passing through the tackle taking a significant step-up. Perhaps it came with the confidence that would have been infused into the Stormers with their bonus point rout of the Highlanders the previous week.
Early in the second half the Stormers, as they have after half-time in a few games, showed off their defence. But the Stormers line just looked impossible to breach, with the Hurricanes players being driven back metres at a time.
Once that onslaught was weathered, it was all the Stormers, with Brok Harris first being denied a try by a TMO decision and then making up for it by crossing the line for the bonus point score after Peter Grant had hacked the ball through and done most of the running in the 58th minute.
Just for good measure, Fourie scored his second try for the Stormers – his first was against the Lions in his debut match -- in the final minutes to complete what must surely rank as one of the most complete Stormers performances in a long time. Beating a top four team so convincingly would surely have made the other teams take notice of their potential.
Scorers
Vodacom Stormers - Tries: Sireli Naqelevuki, Joe Pieterson, Duane Vermeulen, Brok Harris, Jaque Fourie. Conversions: Joe Pieterson (3). Penalty: J.Pieterson.
Hurricanes - Tries: Tyson Keats, David Smith. Penalty: Willie Ripia.
Read more on the Super 14 page.
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