A gutsy, if somewhat scrappy weekend for the SA sides as the Stormers pulled off a top win on tour while the Bulls and Cheetahs snuck into the conference lead.
Tank Lanning (with scorers and reporting from SARU)
The Cape side kicked off their Australasian tour in the best way possible when they beat the Hurricanes 18-16 in a pretty tight affair in Palmerston North. Bryan Habana’s charge down of an attempted Barrett conversion just before half time, and the final scrum (with Brok Harris at looshead nogal) that got the visitors a tighthead stand out for me.
The Sharks showed plenty guts and character to fight back from 24-0 down after only 16 minutes against the Chiefs. It could easily have blown out and completely ruined both the tour and the season, but there was enough there to see that all is not quite lost.
At Loftus, the Bulls beat the Waratahs for the eighth consecutive time, but it was by no means clinical. The Bulls weak scrum was exposed yet again, by what is one of the better scrummaging units in the tournament, and it is something they are going to have to sort out. Werner Kruger just no longer seems an option at tighthead.
The Cheetahs had an opportunity to go top of the conference, but just could not manage that 4th try for a bonus point. Not even close to being soothing on the optics, this game saw the Kings back to their scrambling best and the Cheetahs just never managed to dominate the game like they would have wanted to.
Match reports:
Hurricanes 16 (11) Stormers 18 (7)
A lot of factors contributed to the Stormers’ victory – like their impregnable defence and good tactical play – but the two point difference could also be attributed to some individual brilliance by Bryan Habana, who charged down an attempted conversion by Beauden Barrett on the stroke of half-time.
The charge-down wasn’t the only reason why the Stormers won, though. They absorbed what the Hurricanes threw at them, which was a fair amount, and then struck where and when it counted.
First Michael Rhodes drove over from a Stormers (and fast becoming South African) speciality – the lineout maul, after 32 minutes, which took the Stormers into a 7-6 lead.
The Hurricanes scored their first try a couple of minutes later and Habana’s charge down meant the gap at half time was 4 points instead of 6 – which would have been a real boost to the visitors.
Two Joe Pietersen penalty goals early in the second half made it 13-11 to the Stormers, but a try by Andre Taylor took the home team back into the lead.
Instead of folding though, Gio Aplon had the final say with his try from a scrum following yet another strong run by Duane Vermeulen, which saw the Stormers lead 18-16 in the 63rd minute, and that was how it stayed.
Hurricanes – Tries: Matt Proctor, Andre Taylor. Penalty goals: Beauden Barrett (2).
Stormers – Tries: Gio Aplon, Michael Rhodes. Conversion: Joe Pietersen. Penalty goals: Pietersen (2).
Chiefs 37 (24) Sharks 29 (19)
The Sharks showed some good old fighting spirit, but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Chiefs repeated their 2012 win in the final.
The Chiefs won the match in the first 16 minutes, when they scored three converted tries and a penalty goal to take a 24-0 lead. At that stage, it looked like a massacre was on the cards for the completely rejigged Sharks.
Refusing to give up, The Sharks scored three first-half tries of their own – two by rugged Lions import Derick Minnie and one by Lubabalo “Tera” Mtembu – who had a great game at 8th man – as they clawed their way back to a half-time deficit of just 5 points. Their set piece was working very well and they kept the errors to a minimum.
The Sharks played with more freedom and looked like they enjoyed the match – something that had been absent in their last few matches. Unfortunately, it also never looked like Chiefs would lose.
Both teams added one more try in the second half – but the home team denied the banana boys a second bonus point at the death when Aaron Cruden landed a penalty goal after Keegan Daniel was pinged for an infringement on the ground.
It was the Chiefs’ fifth consecutive victory over The Sharks, but John Plumtree’s team would’ve taken a lot of heart from this performance after they refused to go down despite probably their worst start to any match this season. The four tries is also fairly special given that they could not score a single try in the three matches before this one!
Pieter-Steph du Toit is a bright young talent, but he is starting to make some errors that are costing tries. Obviously a big ball carrier, his passing needs some polishing, and in going for the steal rather than making sure the tackle was made, Du Toit ended up missing a crucial tackle. I wonder if we are asking a little too much of this youngster right now?
The inside pass from Aaron Cruden to a pace man coming in on the angle also caused all kinds of trouble for the Sharks defence, and it is something they are going to have to work on …
Chiefs – Tries: Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Bundee Aki, Tim Nanai-Williams (2). Conversions: Gareth Anscombe (4). Penalty goals: Anscombe (2), Aaron Cruden.
Sharks – Tries: Derick Minnie (2), Lubabalo Mtembu, Keegan Daniel. Conversions: Pat Lambie (3). Penalty goal: Lambie.
Bulls 30 (12) Waratahs 19 (5)
The Bulls’ supremacy was laid in the lineouts, where they poached eight of the Waratahs’ throws. Juandre Kruger was sublime in this respect. Unfortunately the same could not be said for their scrum, where the home team struggled yet again. They also missed many crucial tackles, but did force a lot of kickable penalties, which Morne Steyn duly converted – contributing 25 points for the Bulls, who were outscored by three tries to two.
And before the experienced pivot and Francois Hougaard, back from injury, dotted down late in the game, the visitors had scored all the tries in the match.
Not a great performance by the Bulls, who played in fits and starts, but a win against the quickly improving Tahs ensured an impressive eight match winning streak over the Sydney-siders.
Bulls – Tries: Francois Hougaard, Morné Steyn. Conversion: Steyn. Penalty goals: Steyn (6).
Waratahs – Tries: Bernard Foley, Israel Folau, Paddy Ryan. Conversions: Brendan McKibbin.
Cheetahs 26 (15) Kings 12 (9)
Despite creating a number of scoring opportunities, a combination of good defence by the Kings and a lack of patience from the Cheetahs cost the home team a valuable bonus point. Perhaps the first indication that the Cheetahs are not quite ready to take that final step up to winning the conference?
The Cheetahs had 35 minutes to get that 4th try after Willie le Roux scored their third shortly after the break. In the first half, Raymond Rhule and Lappies Labuschagne both rounded off long-range movements as it looked like the Bloem boys might run riot.
But the Kings’ defence has been solid and dedicated all season (barring last weekend against the Bulls) and they kept the Cheetahs out. The Kings, though, were also not able to score, thanks to some very good defence by the Cheetahs. They created one or two chances, but simply could not get through.
Demetri Catrakilis’ boot kept the visitors in the game for the first 40 minutes, but in the second half they simply had too much defending to do to really threaten.
Cheetahs – Tries: Raymond Rhule, Lappies Labuschagne, Willie le Roux. Conversion: Burton Francis. Penalty goals: Francis (3).
Kings – Penalty goals: Demetri Catrakilis (4).
Other results – Round 11:
Reds 12 Blues 11 (Brisbane)
Brumbies 41 Force 7 (Canberra)
Crusaders 30 Rebels 26 (Christchurch)
Super Rugby log:
Brumbies Pld:10 W:7 Pts:40
Chiefs Pld:9 W:6 Pts:35
Bulls Pld:9 W:6 Pts:32
Reds Pld:10 W:7 Pts:37
Blues Pld:8 W:4 Pts:32
Cheetahs Pld:10 W:7 Pts:31
Crusaders Pld:9 W:5 Pts:30
Sharks Pld:9 W:5 Pts:28
Hurricanes Pld:9 W:5 Pts:28
Stormers Pld:8 W:4 Pts:28
Waratahs Pld:9 W:4 Pts:25
Rebels Pld:9 W:2 Pts:20
Force Pld:10 W:2 Pts:16
Kings Pld:9 W:2 Pts:15
Highlanders Pld:8 W:0 Pts:10
South African Conference
Bulls Pld:9 W:6 Pts:32
Cheetahs Pld:10 W:7 Pts:31
Sharks Pld:9 W:5 Pts:28
Stormers Pld:8 W:4 Pts:28
Kings Pld:9 W:2 Pts:15
New Zealand Conference
Chiefs Pld:9 W:6 Pts:35
Blues Pld:8 W:4 Pts:32
Crusaders Pld:9 W:5 Pts:30
Hurricanes Pld:9 W:5 Pts:28
Highlanders Pld:8 W:0 Pts:10
Australian Conference
Brumbies Pld:10 W:7 Pts:40
Reds Pld:10 W:7 Pts:37
Waratahs Pld:9 W:4 Pts:25
Rebels Pld:9 W:2 Pts:20
Force Pld:10 W:2 Pts:16
This week’s Super Rugby fixtures:
Friday 03 May
09:35 Blues vs Stormers
11:40 Rebels vs Chiefs
Saturday 04 May
09:35 Highlanders vs Sharks
11:40 Force vs Reds
17:05 Kings vs Waratahs
19:10 Bulls vs Hurricanes
Sunday 05 May
07:05 Brumbies vs Crusaders
Tank, do you have any stats regarding which players have had the most man of the match performances this year. Surely, Willie le Roux should be right on top of that pile.
I do not have a record of those Abri, but yep, he would be right up there. Been exceptional this year …