Astoundingly amateur Stormers lose to Sunwolves

The Sunwolves hosted the Stormers in a ‘hot, humid and sticky’ Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon.

After 83 minutes, the teams were deadlocked at 23-23, and it took a magnificent Hayden Parker drop goal off his less favoured boot to steal the win. The Stormers club will need to do some soul searching after a disastrous trip to Hong Kong. If you looked at the team sheets, the Sunwolves had absolutely no right to win the fixture.

Warm Up: Stormers vs Sunwolves

It became very obvious to me that the Stormers have very little idea what they are doing. The forwards warmed up by running simple 3 on 2 attack scenarios, in what can only be described as slow, unimaginative and simple. The backs ran some orchestrated moves, and I was alarmed at the number of poor passes, the lack of focus, and the amateur nature of what was practiced.

The Sunwolves on the other hand ran their pattern, using decoys, lines and drift passes to look to create space. It was a team who despite not having the calibre of playing resources, knew exactly what they wanted to do.

The writing was on the wall before the game had even started.

Stormers Relentless Brain-fades

It would not be an understatement to say the Stormers play the least smart out of all the teams in Super Rugby. Up to now, they have been able to hide behind the majestic skills of Damian Willemse, however this week he was unavailable due to his selection for the South Africa Under 20s.

On several occasions the Stormers got themselves into attacking positions before aimlessly kicking away possession. The Stormers worked well to get well into the opposition half, before halfback Duwenhage would put over a box-kick, chip only for the ball to be marked and cleared by the Sunwolves. This was typical for South African sides, who still do not know how to effectively utilise possession and territory.

Seabelo Senatla must be wondering why he ever left the Sevens circuit and joined the rather dense, and non-professional Stormers. On the first occasion that Senatla received the ball in space, he beat his opposition winger, before SP Marais ran a switch support line, and ended up being directly behind Senatla. Senatla threw the pass and of course it was spilled. On the second occasion that Senatla received the ball, Duwenhage went blind, dragged the defenders with him, before shovelling the ball to Senatla who was left surrounded by Sunwolves defenders.

The mindless play makes one wonder what exactly the team practices. The Sevens sensation was left to chase erratic kicks for the rest of the fixture. After watching the Stormers, I became fully aware that the team does not understand how to create space. The Stormers have one of the most electric finishers in the game, and cannot create an overlap or 5-10 meters for him to wield his magic. This tells me that something is wrong with Robbie Fleck, and the coaching set up.

Diabolical Attack

The Stormers were unimaginative on attack. They scored 2 out of 3 tries from turnover ball. The first try came from a spilt Sunwolves ball, and the second came from an intercept.

The Stormers employed one-off runners throughout the fixture. There were no angles, decoys, switches or drift passes to ask anything other than ‘Can you tackle me?’ on defence. Damian De Allende who has been lauded for being a strong ball carrier, knocked on ball with staggering frequency. Siya Kolisi almost made a notable number of spills.

The Final Nail in the Stormers’ Polystyrene Coffin

Time was up on the stadium clock, and the Stormers had possession inside the Sunwolves’s half. They kept the ball in hand, using their modus operandi. The Stormers employed one-off runners, attacking the first channel. It was boring, ineffective and astonishingly predictable. When the inevitable turnover came, the Sunwolves who knew how to use the ball, wanted to use the ball and practiced using the ball took the ball through several phases before winning the match with a cracking Hayden Parker drop goal.

This was the final nail, and it was the perfect juxtaposition of the two teams. The Stormers who have all the resources, and the Sunwolves who wanted to play, and used an intelligent system and pattern to create space to win the fixture. Time was up, as it should be for Robbie Fleck. The Stormers looked devastated after the fixture, though very few will sympathise when you play such an unattractive, unimaginative and ultra low skill brand of rugby.