For a long time, it looked like it was a game that would be remembered for the litany of errors from the DHL Stormers but thanks to a powerful final quarter the second placed Vodacom URC team stayed on course with a 33-14 win over Edinburgh at the DHL Stadium.
If you look at the score and didn’t watch the game, you’d think that it was a one-sided match in favour of the Stormers, but the reality is that the visitors were leading 14-12 with 16 minutes to go following Edinburgh’s second try which was dotted down by Springbok prop Boan Venter. That came in the 58th minute and it was the first time in the game that Edinburgh actually went ahead in an at times bizarre contest. It was bizarre because of the dominance the Stormers enjoyed in most of the stats in the first half, with their forward dominance as well as territorial ascendancy probably warranting some daylight between the teams in favour of the posts at halftime. Instead it was 7-all thanks mainly to a 14 point swing not long after the Stormers had taken the lead for the first time in the match after 26 minutes.
INTERCEPT TRY HAD BIG SAY IN THE GAME
The Stormers were on the attack, Edinburgh were under intense pressure, and the ball went down the line right on the Edinburgh tryline, with Ruan Nel, the skipper, looking destined to score as the ball was passed towards him with just an open tryline in front of him. Only the ball didn’t get to him. Instead it was the Edinburgh centre James Lang who intercepted and amidst an almost surreal silence ran the length of the field to score.
The conversion brought the scores level just when the Stormers should have been looking at 14-0, which would have been an apt summation of their dominance until then. It might have been a completely different game, and less nervy for the hosts, if that try had been scored. Instead the score galvanised Edinburgh and appeared to stun a Stormers team that, not for the first time this season, were frustrated by their high error rate.
Knocked on balls, an attempt at a quick tap penalty from Stefan Ungerer that went forward out of his hands, missed penalty kicks to touch from flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, some dysfunction at the lineout in the opposition 22 - it was a story that in some ways was a familiar one as so much of it was evident both last week against the Dragons and when the Stormers had their blip in the season where they lost three derbies in a row.
It was also true that Edinburgh, with someone like former ace Sharks ball scavenger Dylan Richardson in their ranks, succeeded in slowing the Stormers ball down from the recycles. It led to an appearance of them being static.
LACK OF PATIENCE HELD THE HOSTS BACK
You could sense the frustration in the Stormers ranks and it led to perhaps their biggest fault on the night - lack of patience. There was a sense that all they needed to do was calm down a bit and use their forward pack to grind it out. Which is effectively what eventually happened. When the replacements were made, it was the Stormers on the front foot, and Edinburgh wilted at the death as the Stormers took control and scored three converted tries in the last 14 minutes of the game.
Roos crossed twice in the game and won the man of the match award for his big ball carries but the Stormers also owed a lot on the night to both their openside flankers. Paul de Villiers won several turnover penalties at the breakdown, two of the most important coming just before halftime and then just after halftime.
He also showed up well as a ball carrier and with just a bit of luck his incisive little breaks might have led to something in terms of points. Then there was Deon Fourie. The veteran had started the two previous games but this time he came off the bench and forced an important penalty in the 73rd minute when Edinburgh, 26-14 behind at that point, were pressing for the try that would bring them back within range of striking for the win.
And then, at the last, with the game already won, the Springbok scored a try as the Stormers destroyed an Edinburgh scrum on their own line and Fourie dotted down to push the margin of victory to beyond what looked likely just 10 minutes or so before that. In the end, a comprehensive win on the scoreboard, and the Stormers also clinched the four try bonus to keep pace with the front running Glasgow Warriors on the log, with the Warriors also having grabbed five points in round 14.
There was a four point gap between Glasgow and the Stormers before the weekend started and that will remain the case as the team’s head into the international break, but it is undeniably the Stormers, who as their director of rugby John Dobson correctly pointed out in the post-match television interview, must be doing something right to have 51 log points, who have the most work to do.
MCHUNU HAD A BIG GAME AS A CARRIER
They need to sort out their error rate, it is as simple as that, for there’s no denying the potency of their forward pack, and also the depth they have at forward. Talking of forwards, although he was yellow carded early on for a deliberate tap down, Ntuthuko Mchunu was one of the most impressive Stormers players.
Apart from his work in the scrums, his good hands helped facilitate Roos’ first try, and it was also him barrelling the ball up and making ground that created the momentum that led ultimately to the Stormers’ second try in the 49th minute to left wing Leolin Zas. Zas then returned the favour later when he set up a try for Mchunu when he blitzed down the left touchline taking the short side with the Stormers on scrum advantage. Mchunu reminded us that he was a No8 when he was at Maritzburg College by showing impressive pace for such a big man as he surged through for the Stormers’ third try to reclaim the Stormers’ lead before perhaps the best of the Stormers’ tries, in terms of how it was created, was finished off by Roos to clinch the try scoring bonus point and pretty much settle the game.
SCORES
DHL STORMERS 33 - Tries: Evan Roos 2, Leolin Zas, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Deon Fourie; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 4.
EDINBURGH 14 - Tries: James Lang and Boan Venter; Conversions: Ross Thompson.