Ruthless Saders give Stormers free lesson
16 Apr 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes the Stormers will need more than guts to end their 11-year trophy drought.
Consider the term ‘brave defeat’. Which word ultimately matters?
That the Stormers showed tremendous valour in Christchurch is not up for debate. They lost both of their starting locks in the first half, and still they managed to stand up to an All Blacks-studded Crusaders pack. They lost Rynhardt Elstadt to an absurd call from referee Chris Pollock in the final quarter, and still they managed to collect a losing bonus point.
But brave defeats are still defeats. There should be no consolation for title aspirants when they drop a game against other big contenders. The Stormers should not find solace in the fact that they went to Christchurch and pushed the seven-time champs close. The reality is it was a game the Stormers could have won had they been more bloody-minded.
It was the difference between the two sides. The Crusaders have a knack of winning games they shouldn’t, it’s become something of a trademark. They may not dominate a fixture from start to finish but they make the most of their opportunities, however few they are in number. This was once again highlighted in the most recent clash with the Stormers.
There are some Stormers fans who will aim their frustration at referee Chris Pollock. While I agree that Pollock had a howler last Saturday, I wouldn’t say he cost the Cape side the game. If anything Pollock was consistent, handing out dubious yellow cards to both teams and missing the sleight of hand at both sides of the breakdown.
But which team made the most of the referee’s mistakes? The Stormers benefited from a Pollock gaffe in the build-up to Bryan Habana’s try. A knock on by Joe Pietersen wasn’t spotted by Pollock or his assistants, and so the try stood at what was an important period of the contest.
The Stormers suffered a terrible blow when Andries Bekker and Eben Etzebeth left the field with injuries in the first half, but they had a fantastic opportunity to take the lead towards the end of the second quarter. Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett was carded for an innocuous tackle and so the hosts went a man down for 10 minutes.
It’s not clear why the Stormers are unable to take advantage in these situations. The Hurricanes were down to 13 men in the first round match against the Stormers, but the Cape side still battled to breach the Hurricanes line. It was embarrassing to see flyhalf Gary van Aswegen kicking a drop goal after a 15-man Stormers attack failed to penetrate a 13-man Hurricanes defence.
Looking back, we can say that impotency proved a sign of things to come.
Last Saturday, the Stormers scored three points while Crockett was off the park, but also conceded three at the other end. The Stormers should have piled on the points at this stage, and were made to regret blowing such an opportunity later in the piece.
The Crusaders were ruthless by comparison. When Elstadt was sin-binned they scored nine points. From there, they continued to pressure the Stormers and with the visitors trailing by 10 points that pressure told, with the Stormers making some basic errors in their own 22. The Crusaders finished this game well but the match was won while Elstadt was in the bin.
There is no denying the Stormers were at a disadvantage having lost both locks, and that they did remarkably well to emerge with a losing bonus point. But looking at the game as a whole and how close they came to recording their first-ever win in Christchurch, they should be disappointed more than anything else.
That it is not a new thing to squander such opportunities should be cause for concern. They had the Sharks on the rack in round two when Ross Skeate was yellow-carded in the 60th minute. They should have closed out the game but only scored three points, and when Skeate returned the Sharks launched a fierce challenge that so nearly forced an upset.
When they hosted the Bulls, the Stormers had a golden opportunity to extend their lead when lock Flip van der Merwe was carded in the 42nd minute. But again they wilted under the pressure, they didn’t seem to enjoy the advantage. They didn’t score again until the 62nd minute. In fact it was the Bulls who scored 10 unanswered points while Van der Merwe was off the field.
The Stormers have shown a lot of guts this season, the manner in which they defend shows their incredible courage under fire. There is a big difference, however, between courage and ruthlessness.
Being brave isn’t enough to win championships. The Stormers need to start showing some killer instinct if they want to be genuine title contenders rather than also-rans.
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405 Comments
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16 Apr 2012, 15:08 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-347:
ahso.
interesting.
thanks for that input.
GREANTENZINCHINA seems almost absurdly reticent on the topic.
you would think that as a gwailo he would be forthcoming.
16 Apr 2012, 15:09 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-348:
he’s australian
16 Apr 2012, 15:11 pm
and i’ll think you’ll find Captain McCaw cleaned him up on one foot the last time they played but he is a fine Australian openside
16 Apr 2012, 15:12 pm
Generally the young expats play the field and screw the women over, old lonely suckers looking for a companion get totally ripped off. I’m still happily single with my bank account intact.
16 Apr 2012, 15:13 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-354:
lonely old sucker.
that sounds like our China.
16 Apr 2012, 15:18 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-355:
whats worse is i think she’s already taken him for his money, which is why he’s resigned to watching reruns of old all black games with a happy face jackie chan lookalike
16 Apr 2012, 15:20 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-347: LOL
16 Apr 2012, 15:20 pm
@greentea(greentea)-352: Born in what was Rhodesia.
16 Apr 2012, 15:21 pm
sum dum noodle…
16 Apr 2012, 15:22 pm
Only locks missing from a pretty decent Rhodesian side made up of internationals for other nations:
1. Beast
2. Chris Rogers
3. Garvey/MacDonald/Mujati
4. ?
5. ?
6. Pocock
7. Skinstad/Krige
8. Teichman
9. Gregan
10. Robinson
11. Ngwenya/Watson
12. Van Schoor
13. Marinos/Smith
14. Mordt/Evans
15. Chavanga
16 Apr 2012, 15:26 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-360:
Krige and Gregan are Zambians.
16 Apr 2012, 15:27 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-360: Nice try but Corne and Gregan are both Zambians….
16 Apr 2012, 15:28 pm
@willievz(willievz)-361: Snap!
16 Apr 2012, 15:30 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-362: Then again, it was known as Northern Rhodesia prior to 1964
16 Apr 2012, 15:33 pm
@grant10(grant100)-263: Doos!
16 Apr 2012, 15:34 pm
@willievz(willievz)-361:
@trupisero(trupisero)-362:
northern rhodesia
16 Apr 2012, 15:35 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-364:
indeed.
16 Apr 2012, 15:37 pm
m@houston, we have a problem…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-356:
you dont perhaps mean a lucy lui look alike.
16 Apr 2012, 15:40 pm
@willievz(willievz)-361: @trupisero(trupisero)-362: Key word is Rhodesia as Trupi pointed out…
Northern Rhodesia… Which makes Krige and Gregan Rhodesians too…
16 Apr 2012, 15:40 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther(gunther)-367: Not that HG knew this
16 Apr 2012, 15:42 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-369: Nope, both born after independence so zambians.
Was a separate colony to Rhodesia in any event.
16 Apr 2012, 15:43 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-370: Come now. Keep up…
16 Apr 2012, 15:48 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-371: A separate Colony.. Huh? yet run by the same administration… along with Nyasaland (Malawi)
Bullshit man.
They are Rhodesians because they come from Rhodesia… When those countrys actually worked to a certain extent… better than now anyway….
When Zambia and Zimbabwe were part of Greater Rhodesia, its the best those countries have ever been. Fact.
16 Apr 2012, 16:02 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-368:
for old china..?.. not a fark…
he mentioned the other day he’s got some drunken buddy named wong who organises him counterfeit tapes and who he watches the games with…of course wong doesn’t understand rugby at all so just nods in furious excitement with a happy smile everytime china screams out loud…
if the gwailo’s happy, he’s happy….
“wong! fetcher tsingtao chop, chop! and grab yourself one, mate!”…
(wong’s chinese smiley face)
16 Apr 2012, 16:02 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-373: Fact? Whose fact? Zim has certainly deteriorated over the last 15 years with mad Bob at the helm but Zambia is most certainly very much a different place to what it was in the early 90s, and certainly far better than it was during those times.
Fact.
And democracy actually works in Zambia, unlike Zim.
Fact.
16 Apr 2012, 16:03 pm
@houston, we have a problem…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-374: that’s just wong!
16 Apr 2012, 16:04 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-376:
16 Apr 2012, 16:05 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-376:
how can something feel so good and be so wong?
16 Apr 2012, 16:05 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-373:
Why don’t we pick a Southern African XV excluding South Africa, and include the great Jan Ellis
16 Apr 2012, 16:15 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-375: Fact. You are blinded by lily liberal stupidity. Living in cloud cuckoo land of rainbows without any relation to reality.
My team is made up of Rhodesians.
Fact.
Rhodesia was there first.
Fact.
Wake up and smell the roses, man.
My team.
My rules.
16 Apr 2012, 16:17 pm
@willievz(willievz)-379: Ja. Maybe he can fit in at lock…
Or we borrow two Souties like Mark Andrews and Atherton… They can be honourable Rhodesians…
16 Apr 2012, 16:19 pm
“Democracy works in Zambia”. Forgot to chuckle at that one
How does it “work”?
16 Apr 2012, 16:21 pm
Amended Rhodesian Team with two Sharkies as Honourable Rhodesians.
1. Beast
2. Chris Rogers
3. Garvey/MacDonald/Mujati
4. Atherton
5. Andrews
6. Pocock
7. Skinstad/Krige
8. Teichman
9. Gregan
10. Robinson
11. Ngwenya/Watson
12. Van Schoor
13. Marinos/Smith
14. Mordt/Evans
15. Chavanga
Bring it on Mofos… This team will have more imagination than the Boks… and farken more Ballas than the Sheepshaggers or Wobblies
16 Apr 2012, 16:23 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-380: uhm…if your land of rainbows refer to SA, sorry, wrong!
In fact north of the Zambezi.
16 Apr 2012, 16:28 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-382: hmmm…lets see…fair multi-party elections as a start?
Opposition taking power and incumbents handing over power without resorting to violence or other means to cling onto power?
This is typically found in a working democracy, no?
Shut your toilet until you start speaking sense.
16 Apr 2012, 16:30 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-384: Ja, well then you either mad or a farken crook to be there.
Nothing else “works”. Even democracy. Money too.
Now wake up man.
16 Apr 2012, 16:34 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-386: See final sentence @385.
Outta here.
16 Apr 2012, 16:44 pm
@trupisero(trupisero)-387:
Oh, I can’t close my eyes
And make it go away
How long…
How long must we sing this song
How long, how long…
16 Apr 2012, 16:53 pm
@383
Coach Ian Mac.
16 Apr 2012, 17:08 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-373:
Heavens Game when last have you been to Zambia. Im writing from there now. I spend a lot of time here. Yes, it may have been a better administration in the 50/60′s But at whose expense? Zambians are great, albeit not without fault. But let’s not start listing holier than though countries/people/administrations. They do not exist.
Don’t sit there on your high horse and talk k@k about Zambia.
16 Apr 2012, 17:13 pm
PS: Heavens Game, I visit this site to learn more about the game. Do not post comments, because I feel I probably don’t understand it well enough to be a voice here. But as it is, very few people here really understand it. And I only take a few bloggers seriously. A great deal of the time I read it for the chirps here. Classic ones at times. Have been in stitches here.
I grew up in a rugby culture and played for a long time too.
16 Apr 2012, 17:13 pm
Jinne this is becoming a thoroughly unpleasant place to be
16 Apr 2012, 17:20 pm
@mad eye(mad eye)-389: Hellsteeth, there can be only one
Thousand yard stare.
16 Apr 2012, 17:21 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-392:
for my part i apologise dawn, from my heart.
i dont like or mean to be the lowest common denominator but these pesky hobbits have a way of bringing that out of one.
again, sorry.
16 Apr 2012, 17:33 pm
@whistleblower(whistleblower)-390: Relax shamwari… Its called a windup. After some questioning of my indisputable picks for a side representing Greater Rhodesia I then had to explain some Geography nicely. But if its a scrap you sensitive souls want then lets do it.
The fact that there first was a Rhodesia was neither here nor there – my point actually is that some bloody good Rugby players come from Southern Africa outside South Africa. Whether you want to phrase that as some bloody good players come from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia, other than Azania to calm those liberation sensitivities then so be it.
You say “Yes, it may have been a better administration in the 50/60?s But at whose expense”…. and “let’s not start listing holier than though countries/people/administrations”…. Yet you make the point “at whose expense”… Kaunda’s Zambia was a fckup for all Zambians’ expense. It may have improved marginally but this is hardly South Korea we’re talking about which was at the same point of development as a country as Zambia at her independence.
Nevertheless Zambia is far Better than Bob’s Fiefdom to the South. But then again this fiefdom is now probably eclipsed by Afghanistan and probably slightly more dangerous depending on the pallour of your skin and whether you like planting a few seeds or not.
16 Apr 2012, 17:44 pm
@whistleblower(whistleblower)-391: Good man. Contribute more… Have a blast and don’t take it too personally.
I am sure Northern Rhodesians have a farken good sense of humour…
16 Apr 2012, 19:00 pm
Hey whistle, should catch an ale here sometime!
Rhapsody’s?
16 Apr 2012, 20:13 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-395:
Ok Heavens Game, point taken. And yes you right, decent rugby players came from Zim/Zam /South/ North. I have always wondered why they (Zim) didnt just continue in the Curry Cup. Nowadays even Vodacom.
cheers
16 Apr 2012, 20:19 pm
Good idea trupisero. Rhapsody’s around the corner from me. If you read this, go to yesbutno@rocketmail.com I’ll let you have my details from there. I found a dedicated rugby screen at the new Spur Manda Hill. It took me a long time of Lusaka cruising to find it. They only watch soccer at the rugby club
16 Apr 2012, 20:46 pm
well fckme sideways they’re reminiscing about old mother Hubbard’s f’ng fancy dress ball in the old colonial country stall all over again
jeepers f’ng creepers you can try take the colonialist out the colony but you ain’t ever gonna take the colony from out the colonialists memory… for as long as he breathes … no f’ng sirree…
when this dying breed ever gonna die out and vrek … they fck’d this continent up in their avarice and their greed … and now they wanna blow pumpkin seeds in pretty premises of sweet reminiscences
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