The Stormers will destroy the Reds. I cant wait to see how confident the Reds backs will attack the ferocious tackles of Schalk and his team. Genia might make it past a few but Cooper will be tackled. The Reds will also be flat after their travels back from SA and the Bulls onslaught. Stormers by a lot.
Others mince their words, why? I say it as it is. Adnaan Mohamed in Die Son had this to say
After the Stormers superb 49-15 victory over the Chiefs in Hamilton last week, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee believes the big challenge for his team is to repeat that performance against the Reds in Brisbane on Friday.
The Stormers have already proven to be the best defensive team in this year’s competition. Against the Chiefs they managed to get the balance right between defence and attack.
The Cape Franchise produced their best performance of the season against the Chiefs and the challenge will be to maintain the same levels of intensity against the Reds.
But it is not going to be an easy task. The Reds showed last Saturday what they are capable of when they beat defending Super 14 champions, the Bulls by 19-12 in Brisbane.
“To get the balance right between defence and attack is something that we’ve been striving for the whole season. The guys are currently showing great accuracy and composure on attack. Against the Chiefs the teamwork was superb. The challenge will now be to keep the guys fresh so that they can tackle the Reds with the same intensity on Friday,” said Coetzee from Brisbane on Sunday.
The Cape Franchise showed against the Blues and the Chiefs that they have the physical presence to strangle Ewen McKenzie’s (coach) team in the engine room.
Coetzee is confident his team has the right personnel and tactical acumen to beat the Reds on their home turf.
“Against the Blues and the Chiefs the Stormers forwards played magnificently. They laid the foundation by providing quality front foot ball in the scrums and line outs. Besides the quality play of the forwards in the set phases, their support play in the tight loose was outstanding. They could literally be covered with a blanket. It is however very important to come up with the same recipe with a few adjustments against the Reds,” explained Coetzee.
The Brisbane outfit has been impressive so far this season and the Stormers can expect a tough battle on Friday. They have a dangerous half back pair who will have to be neutralized if the Stormers hope to beat them in Brisbane.
“Will Genia and Quade Cooper have set the scene alight in the no. 9 and no. 10 jerseys this season. All the Reds attacks are based around them. They will therefore have to watched closely,” warned Coetzee.
After the match against the Reds, the Stormers still have a tough assignment when they return home from their overseas leg of their tour.
Next week they host current log leaders and multiple Super 14 title winners, the Crusaders at Newlands. They then travel to Durban to tackle the Sharks before returning home to lock horns with the Bulls in Cape Town. This game is already sold out.
Stormers captain Schalk Burger believes this year’s battle for semi-final places will be determined in the last league fixture of the season.
“I think this year’s competition will be closely contested. Things can change very quickly from week to week. It will come down to the wire in the last weekend before the semis. I think the clash against the Bulls at Newlands will be an epic battle,” said Burger.
This is not said to stir something , i think the backlash will hit the Reds. The Stormers are now at their peak. This is their 14th game of the season. That is a lot of preparation.
So many of the players peaked NOW. They will be at their best. Expect 50 from them, they stopped playing in the last few minutes against the Blues. Instead they fine tuned their scrum.
Got to admit, I’m about as creative as a chef in a prison at the moment, so I’m having a hard time thinking what exactly to write here. See, me and a few of my friends had ourselves a ‘manne naweek’ this weekend. We headed out to a place called De Drinken, not far from Morreesburg for 2 nights of camping, fishing,a ‘few’ doppe and a non-stop braai. Thus, as a result of the lack of electricity, I was unable to see any match this weekend except for the Super Fantastic ‘this is what Super 14 rugby is all about’ performance by the Stormers on Friday.
C’mon chaps, even if you hate the Stormers or believe that Super 14 rugby is Rugby Lite you have to agree that this win was mighty impressive. Rock solid defence, exceptional handling and very few unforced errors meant that this was about as good as it gets. Of course there have been hammerings in the past worth noting (Last year’s final definately comes to mind here) but to have outdone last years’ runners up as we have done on Friday was just….wow!
On to the more intricate details though and here’s what I though of the team in general:
15. Gio Aplon
This oke weighs in at only 75kg, yet he stands back for no-one. That line break of his basically ensured us the spectacular 1st try by Habana.
14. Sireli Naqelevuki
I’m still in two minds with this oke. He played brilliant rugby on Friday, but he’s still trying to sidestep the opposition while standing dead still. For a change though, his handling wasn’t too bad, except maybe for what should’ve been the first try. Cannot understand how one would knock on a ball like that with an open tryline!
13. Jaque Fourie
Two words – Bloody Awesome! Although Juan de JOngh shows a lot of promise, I can’t help but shudder at the prospect of maybe seeing Jaque and Jean (de Villiers) maybe plying side by side for WP during the Currie Cup.
12. Juan de Jongh
Did what was required of him and did it well. This guy has a bright future in rugby and plays entertaining rugby. He migh be overconfident sometimes when trying some line-breaks, but if you don’t try, there’s no way you can succeed.
11. Bryan Habana
Although he scored a try, I can’t help feeling that he doesn’t get enough ball. His follow-ups with the uppies is great though and his defence is getting better every game. At first I didn’t think WP should’ve spent as much money on him, but now I think he and Fourie were probably some of the best buys in a very long time.
10. Peter Grant
I’ll probably be overconfident if I say he should be first choice Springbok come the tests, but he should AT THE VERY LEAST be included in the squad. Peter has been playing markedly better and for some reason Morne Steyn has been playing a lot worse lately. Morne does ‘still’ have the edge though but Peter is knocking on that door!
9. Dewaldt Duvenage
I’ve been doing my fair share of Ricky Bashing over the last few weeks, but Fridays’ performance by the Stormers was largely thanks to this man cleaning out every single ball with incredible speed and efficiency. Ricky January is not even in the same class as this guy. He’s my second choice Springbok scrumhalf after Fourie du Preez. Ricky’s days are done and the sooner he gets it the better. I can’t help but think that the Stormers/WP just have too big a contract with him to let him out of the side, otherwise I can’t see why they keep him.
8. Duane Vermeulen + 7. Francois Louw + 6. Schalk Burger (captain)
Collectively these three make up one of the best, of not the best, loose forward combinations for the WP/Stormers EVER. Schalk Burger has the workrate of an ox and Duane + Francois give other teams all sorts of hell at the breakdown. They also tackle the living daylights out of most people. Pierre Spies, watch out boytjie, Duane might be a real threat to the Springbok no 8 position for you. I would really not mind either way though – they’re both bloody brilliant.
5. Andries Bekker
Need I actually say anything here? Definately the man of the match. He’s redefining in every way what lock play could be and should be. The try with his arms stretching over to make the line was great!
4. Adriaan Fondse
If there was one Stormer who I would mention for having a quiet game it would probably be Adriaan. I didn’t really see anything magical from him, although he did disrupt the Chiefs lineout ball and made most of his tackles.
3. Brok Harris
Great game. I think he has the makings of a legendary front rower and should AT THE VERY LEAST be included in the Springbok training squad
2. Tiaan Liebenberg
A blinder. The guy is everywhere. I honestly think he’s better than Bismarck at this stage. Experience is key though and with Du Plessis there is plenty of that to go around. Once again, whoever gets chosen – we’ll have a killer hooker in our Springbok squad this year. Maybe Adriaan Strauss should also be mentioned as a possible no 2 for the green and gold here.
1. JD Moller
For someone who’s been out of high profile rugby for so long, JD is playing some great rugby. Seems like he’s definately been working on his overall strength in his off time because he’s been scrumming very good. Wicus is still the better choice and I hope we have him available for the Reds game
Substitutes: 16. Deon Fourie, 17. JC Kritzinger 18. Anton van Zyl, 19. Pieter Louw, 20. Ricky Januarie, 21. Willem de Waal, 22. Tim Whitehead
The only sub I took notice of was Ricky (yes I know the subject is getting tired) and I have to say the whole game slowed down when he came on. I think Peter Louw also came on later in the game, but for all intents and purposes, the last 5 minutes was devoted to one scrum – waste of flippen scoring time – so I can’t really rate his performance.
All and all a great game from the Stormers. It’ evident though that the Springbok selecters will have their work cut out for them later on.
As for the game against the Reds next week, go get ’em boys! I predict close fought 6 point victory.A bonus point victorywould be great though because we have some of our hardest games still left before we can safely say we’ve reached the semi’s.
Have a nice week gents!
The Mystic Boer, signing out!
Superbul
Good assessment of Stormers’ rugby, I especially agree on the WP loosies being the best in the business at the moment, not only in SA but worldwide.
Pietman they are boiling hot . Really they will knock the Reds if they play like this, no doubt.
Super, Good post there.
Agree, Stormers will beat the Reds. They playing fantastic rugby.
Good summary superBul. The boys are playing well and just need to keep their feet on the ground. I quite enjoyed Bekkers version of try celebration, makes sense as opposesed to the other funny signs and dances we see!
Nee flok, ek probeer nederig en stil wees. Dit tel nie as ander spanne namens ons windgat raak en ons dan try jinx nie.
The Reds is no mean feat it seems, I might have been wrong about their quality, however, the Bulls did play the worst rugby ever, something I said was coming, so I am still unconvinced how strong the Reds are.
Can I just quickly crush one myth.
There is NO SUCH THING as “sag maak” games!!!
The past weekend I had to listen to a friend and Bulls supporter saying, ja, well, the reason why the Stormers are doing so well on tour (winning against the Chiefs and Blues) is because the Bulls “made them soft”. K@k man, these are professional teams that goes through well planned recovery, strength training and fitness sessions. The fact that the Chiefs played with a “second team” and that the Blues had missed John Afoa against the Stormers had NOTHING to do with the Bulls. It had to do with (1) prior injury and (2) poor squad planning.
Secondly, if we are to apply this “logic” it means that every team that wins only does so because the team they beat were mad soft the weak before.
But by this logic the Bulls beat the Chiefs because the latter were “softened-up” by the Highlanders (of all teams) and the Bulls lost to the Blues because they were softened by the Force. Question, how does the Force and Highlanders “soften you up”. Funny enough, the week before the Crusaders lost to the Reds, they were also “made soft” by the Highlanders. So maybe that why the Highlanders should be in the Super comp. To make sure they make other teams soft.
Interesting article…similar to the “its hard to be humble” one a few weeks back.
Put the writing on the wall and someone will scratch it out.
Let me tell you one thing…. tell any Reds team theat you will beat them and the Queenslander inside of them will ensure they will beat all the odds.
The Chiefs defence over the weekend was very poor. Aplon strolled through the defense and there were no hard drive you back tackles from the Chiefs. No team with any calibre will allow a player after a 25 metre run up through…it was just poor.
We are over-rating the Chiefs based on last year but this years chiefs are no good.
Having said that the Stormers are playing good rugby and it will be a close game next week. The reds…if they were tired it would have shown on Saturday but it did not. Mackensie will rest his players this week and get them fired up.
Interesting statistic in the past 2 stormers victories they have a very poor missed tackle count. Even though they beat the blues they had 44 missed tackles to the blues twenty something…just shows the stormers are more accurate in attack when the opposition misses a tackle. Same again with the chiefs the stormers had a worse missed tackle count.
In a game where a team knows how to finish off a movement after a missed tackle the stormers will struggle.
Missed tackles is a concern for the stormers and Mackensie will keep an eye on that and its coming from the inside channel through to the secons centre.
Mackensie utilised the poor defense record of the Bulls at their outside backs and the Bulls did not lift a finger to sort this out…they focused on trying to stop the movement between the scrum half and FH …just look at the Bulls defensive set up for their backline to face the reds.
Mackensie will focus on how to channel ball through the stormers flyhalf, 1st centre and second centre with support players running through heaps.
Another one is gojng through the breakdown…I saw heaps of stormers players spreading out quickly in defensive on the defensive ruck or maul…Reds will target that channel.
If the Reds bring the bulls game this weekend the Stormers are going to struggle.
This game is going to be about whats upstairs…the Reds have committed themselves to no excuses about travel fatigue…its a mental thing!!
The Saint
The Bulls played bad rugby but is that their fault or they were not allowqed to play their rigby.
The Reds had a game plan and that is what we saw and not the Bulls.
We wait and see what the Reds are made of and before we know it they may be challenging for the top 2 before we decide to say they are any good.
They have beaten some top sides so they have some bone in their back!!
Walla
The Stormers strength lies in their scramble defense, yes they missed quite a number against the Blues, but everyone did, they Blues are an awesome attacking power. The Reds do not have the same quality outside backs as the Blues, with the exception of Digby Ioani, but this Friday he is up against Habana, more than a match in the pace stakes.
BTW, a team plays only as good as the opposition allows them to play, given, it is not the same Chiefs as in 2009.
As for the flyhalve and breakdown channel, we conceded 115 points only in this comp so far, if we can’t defend, as you are suggesting, someone must be tampering with the stats.
Walla
Exactly what I was saying about the Chiefs and the Blues…you don’t credit the Stormers, I don’t credit the Reds.
Wallabie @ 9 – well written and analytical post, Walla. You’ve employed fact and logic over emotion, with a good read as the outcome.
I agree with your analysis of the Reds – let’s watch them this weekend and see how they measure up. It’s no sure thing for the Stormers, as any home game at Suncorp will engender massive doses of that well-known “Queenslander” thing – they use the laager concept of old – circle the wagons, the Stormers are coming!
Breaching the line will take a huge effort by Stormers – we’ll watch with delight as it will be an excellent match-up.
The Saint 12
I completely credit the stormers. They are the better saffa side in regards being a more complete side.
Your article discredits the Reds as an opponent as if they are the Reds of yesteryear. This puts you in a very difficult position if the Stormers lose as you state that the “Stormers will crush the Reds”.
You are setting yourself up for an absolute ribbing next week if they are to lose.
You cannot blame supporters who will come on here and give you stick…you have chosen to receive this.
I admire your passion in supporting yout team or your nations teams. I hope that when your teams lose you still have this admiration for them and not descredit the ref or for that matter your team..
So far in your predictions you have been somewhat very wrong this year regarding the aussie teams which seems to me there is a blinding hate for them on your part. Your hate/emotion in setting predictions is your thing but this will not determine which way games will go.
In a nutshell what I am saying is the Stormers could crush the Reds but I would say based on form this is a less of a likelyhood. I believe you are looking at the Chiefs and Blues game to determine the Reds result but the Reds are a different kettle of fish.
I would say it is not outright and even if the Reds played well against the Bulls and ‘could have’ beaten the Bulls by more the Stormers are a different opponent.
Stormers will win. They will not allow the Reds the freedom at the breakdown that the Bulls did. In fact I doubt that any team will give the Reds that much freedom again.
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