Super Rugby Round 16 proved to South African rugby fans that playing attacking rugby is possible for South African Franchises, with the Stormers and Lions putting together impressive performances.
Brumbies 22 Vodacom Bulls 16
Brumbies – tries: Henry Speight (2), Jordan Smiles Conversions: Christian Lealiifano (2) Penalty: Lealiifano
Vodacom Bulls – try: Lappies Labuschagne Conversion: Handre Pollard. Penalties: Pollard (3)
The Bulls continued with their confused game plan, claiming to be embracing a more attractive brand of rugby but failing dismally to deliver this. The stats bear this out. The Bulls carried the ball 70 times, yet passed only 65 times. Their ball retention was poor as well, conceding 18 turnovers. Their game plan was once again so one dimensional that they had to resort to setting up 11 driving mauls, with the only success being Lappies Labuschagne’s try.
The Brumbies were fair on the day, but not spectacular. Henry Speight scored two of their three tries, the first of which he exploited the gap between Handre Pollard and Burger Odendaal with a outside drift to get past Pollard and then an inside step at full pace to beat Odendaal’s attempted tackle. For his second, he saw off JJ Engelbrecht’s poor tackle with a firm hand off to the face.
I would personally be very surprised to see Frans Ludeke’s tenure extend past the 2015 season. The Bulls do have the players to show a lot more enterprise but don’t seem to be given the freedom to do so. The Bulls have become far too predictable and simply do not use the resources they have at their disposal.
Cell C Sharks 25 Rebels 21
Cell C Sharks – Tries: S’bura Sithole, Lwazi Mvovo and Heimar Williams; Conversions: Lionel Cronje 2; Penalties: Lionel Cronje 2
Rebels – Tries: Scott Higginbotham 2, Bryce Hegharty; Conversions: Jack Debreczeni 3
The Sharks will be happy to chalk up a second win on the trot, but should be a little disappointed that they could not put away a Rebels side that were down a man for the bulk of the game.
Their numerical advantage came after Rebels prop Laurie Weeks obstructed Jannie du Plessis’ chase after a kick. Du Plessis responded with flat handed slap to the back of Weeks’ head, to which he responded with a combination of punches. The end result was a red card for Weeks and yellow for Du Plessis, which was a fair decision by the match day officials.
S’bura Sithole was first to score for the Sharks, when he showed surprising strength when powered over the line with a number of Rebels defenders on his back. Luwazi Mvovo was next to score when he intercepted a loose Nic Shirzaker pass to run in from 80m out. Heimar Williams scored the Sharks last try, which some pundits are claiming as the best scored at Kings Park this year. Receiving the ball, he threw a dummy pass and stepped inside three would-be tacklers to score.
Scott Higginbotham scored twice for the Rebels, the first of which was courtesy of Mitch Inman, who drew the defense and passed to Higginbotham, who ran through five weak tackles to score. After some end to end attacking rugby, Bryce Hegharty brought the Rebels right back into the game when he scored a break out try from 75m out.
The Sharks will take the win, but the quality of performance by both sides was nothing to get too excited about. Gary Gold will have a lot to consider over the next couple of months as he considers what to do with this Sharks team and the direction they should take. Although it has been known for a long time, it was confirmed this week that the Du Plessis brothers will be off to Montpellier in 2016.
DHL Stormers 42 Toyota Cheetahs 12
DHL Stormers 42 – Tries: Seabelo Senatla 2, Damian de Allende, Vincent Koch and Sikhumbuzo Notshe; Conversions: Demetri Catrakilis 4; Penalties: Demetri Catrakilis 3
Toyota Cheetahs 12 – Tries: Boom Prinsloo and Cornell Greeff; Conversion: Joe Pietersen
This match was the last game in charge for the current Cheetahs coaching team and whilst they were knew they were in for a tough time, their overall performance was rather disappointing. Os du Randt is off to Toyota Verblitz in Japan and Naka Drotske is set to open his own fire extinguisher business in Bloemfontein – rather ironic seeing as the Cheetahs have not set the competition alight this year.
The wobbly Cheetahs defense presented the Stormers with the perfect opportunity to play with a lot more attacking intent than they have displayed all season, dotting down five times to earn the bonus point. Seabelo Senatla, who was the top try scorer in the past season’s World Sevens circuit, brought a lot more potency to the back three and a Test cap is surely not far off, considering that Bryan Habana will probably call it quits after the 2015 Rugby World Cup. With Alister Coetzee off to coach in Japan at the end of the current Super Rugby tournament it would be interesting to see if the Stormers new coach will use the attacking potential of this backline more effectively than Coetzee has. There has been no formal word from the Stormers on who the new coach could possibly be, but Western Province Vodacom Cup squad coach John Dobson surely has the inside track.
The Cheetahs long injury list was a serious inhibitor for them during the 2015 season. Incoming coach Franco Smith, who now taken over the reigns from Drotske, will have a really tough week ahead of him to put out a competitive side over the next two weekends that will play to his pattern of play.
Emirates Lions 27 Waratahs 22
Emirates Lions – tries: Ruan Combrinck (2), Harold Vorster Conversions: Elton Jantjies (3) Penalties: Jantjies (2)
Waratahs – tries: Stephen Hoiles, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Rob Horne Conversions: Bernard Foley (2) Penalty: Foley
Popular opinion was that the defending champions would be too strong for the Lions. The Lions don’t attach much importance to popular opinion and underdog status though and surprised all with their very attacking mindset, leaving the Waratahs in their wake.
Although Elton Jantjies was awarded the Man of the Match award, special mention must be made of both Ruan Combrink and Jaco Kriel. Their form on Saturday night was spectacular and they had the Waratahs scrambling on numerous occasions. Kriel can also rightly claim bragging rights over Michael Hooper in the breakdown battle. If South Africa wasn’t so richly blessed with loose forward talent he would surely be in the reckoning for the Test squad.
Combrink’s first try was set up by Jantjies, who threw a long overhead pass, allowing him to beat Isreal Falau on the outside before he had caught the ball. It was a line break deep in Lions territory by Combrink that set up his second try. After some inter-passing to work their way up the field, Combrink was at the end of the final pass. Harold Vorster’s try was a magnificent effort that had been set up by a massive tackle by Kriel in midfield. The ball popped loose and was sent wide to Combrink, who once again stretched the defense with his pace down the touchline before a cheeky back hand pass sent Vorster in for the score.
The two Waratahs tries were both the result of sustained phase play short of the Lions tryline, with Adam Ashley-Cooper and Rob Horne being the beneficiaries. The Waratahs will rue their poor discipline on the day, with two yellow cards severely hampering their chances. Horne was carded for a dangerous dump tackle on Lionel Mapoe and substitute Jacques Potgieter was binned for an off the ball shoulder charge on Lions skipper Warren Whitely.
This weekend, the Stormers and especially the Lions proved to everyone that South African teams need not rely on the driving maul to score tries and do have attacking abilities, if only their coaches would allow them to do so.
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