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Hurricanes hold on as errors cost Stormers

rugby23 March 2019 08:44| © Cycle Lab
By:JJ Harmse
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Jordie Barrett © Gallo Images
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The Hurricanes exploited DHL Stormers mistakes and then held on desperately at the end to scorhard fought 34-28 Vodacom Super Rugby win at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.

The reason the Stormers failed to break a long losing sequence in New Zealand could probably be summed up by the moment that snuffed out what looked like a great opportunity for them to score the try that would put them in with a chance of winning it. The Stormers’ driving maul had been good all night, and when they set up a lineout on the Hurricanes line with less than three minutes to go, there should have been a sense of foreboding running through the home supporters.

But although the Stormers won the ball, Juarno Augustus went in front and was penalised. Beauden Barrett was able to relieve the pressure with his kick, and although the Hurricanes remained in their own half for the remaining minutes of the game, they were able to just wind down the clock by retaining possession.

The Stormers also had a lineout throw on the Hurricanes line a few minutes before that, so they had their chances in the final 10 minutes. That they were even behind and chasing the game at that point though was down to one of several Stormers errors on the night that cost them points.

As the match ticked over to the 70 minute mark, the Stormers were leading 28-27 and were looking fairly comfortable as the game was being played far from their line. However, in poaching a Hurricanes lineout ball, they made a mess of the tidying up and Ardea Sarvea came through the lineout to gather the ball and surge upfield to set up a try for Beauden Barrett.

The Stormers came close, agonisingly close, to winning a game many weren’t expecting them to, but in the end it was little errors, the sort you just cannot afford to make against New Zealand teams, that let them down.

As anticipated, the Stormers’ approach was heavily accented on the forwards. And the anticipated dominance in that area of the game was forthcoming. What the Stormers struggled with though was the tempo the Kiwis were able to inject into their game when they did have the ball.

So while the Stormers started strongly and their forwards made a big statement with some strong drives early in the game, and the Hurricanes had hardly touched the ball when the SP Marais kicked his second penalty to make it 6-0 after nine minutes, it was the Stormers who struggled for much of the rest of the half.

A tally of 13 missed tackles cost them dearly, and the Stormers just gave the Hurricanes too much ground when they had the ball. An early error that cost them was the missed lineout that led to the Hurricanes’ first try, scored by Ben May.

Beauden Barrett’s conversion put the Hurricanes into the lead for the first time at 7-6, and it became a four point deficit when Barrett added a penalty.

At the end of the first quarter the Stormers were being stretched and were clearly struggling with the Hurricanes’ tempo, which isn’t surprising if you consider that most of the games in the South African conference have been arm-wrestles this year. They were reminded that if you make a mistake in NewZealand team’s 22 it can still be a very dangerous part of the field for you, and on several occasions the hosts counter-attacked with intent and had the Stormers defence scrambling.

The Stormers clearly wanted to limit the ball kicked onto the Hurricanes for counter-attacking opportunities, but their apparent intent to make sure of getting the ball out rather than worrying about distance meant they were under pressure in their own half of the field more than they should have been.

When flyhalf Jean-Luc Du Plessis was yellow carded in the 20th minute the Stormers were really up against it, and there might have been uncomfortable reminiscences for coach Robbie Fleck of some of the big defeats his team has suffered in New Zealand in recent years when Jordie Barrett ran onto an excellent little chip from the Hurricanes’ new scrumhalf to make it 15-6 after 21 minutes.

Had that happened in the past two seasons that might have been it and the Stormers might have fallen apart, particularly as they were set to be down to 14 men for another nine minutes. But the 2019 vintage Stormers are made of sterner stuff, and their big men got them back into the game with some strong driving.

Considering they were down to 14 men the try Siya Kolisi scored, breaking off a driving maul, was a huge psychological boost and was the turning point that dictated that it would be a close game. Indeed, the Stormers finished off the half in rousing fashion, with Marais kicking a penalty to put his team into the front (16-15) with five minutes remaining to the break, and then Bongi Mbonambi scoring off a driving maul after the hooter.

The teams had been heading off the field before that Mbonambi score, only for the TMO to rule that he needed to look at what looked like a dangerous tackle. That view was confirmed, the Stormers scored their try off the lineout set up by the resultant penalty, and the Hurricanes were condemned to playing the first part of the second half down to 14 men.

They played some scrappy rugby in the first 15 minutes of the second half, with elementary errors, such as the odd forward pass and kick directly into touch, working against the Cape team. The Hurricanes started to force penalties and were on penalty advantage when wing Wes Goosen scored the first of his two tries in the right corner. Barrett’s angled conversion regained the Hurricanes a one point lead (22-21).

The Stormers though were awakened from their mid-game slumber by an excellent scrum that netted a penalty, and the decision by Kolisi to go for the corner rather than regain the lead by kicking the points was vindicated when Jaco Coetzee scored near the posts.

Coetzee was again an energetic presence until he had to leave the field in the dying minutes to undergo a concussion test. The Stormers had emptied their bench of loose-forwards at that point, and Pieter-Steph du Toit was locking the scrum, so Coetzee’s departure may have played a role in the Stormers’ failure to convert their good field position in the last five minutes.

Mbonambi was the best Stormer forwards on a night where perhaps the visitors had to rely too heavily on their big men to force their point.

SCORERS:

Hurricanes 34 - Tries: Ben May, Jordie Barrett, Wes Goosen 2 and Beauden Barrett; Conversions: Beauden Barrett 3; Penalty: Beauden Barrett.

DHL Stormers 28 - Tries: Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi and Jaco Coetzee; Conversions: SP Marais 2; Penalties: SP Marais 3

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