Vintage Stormers do it in style against Sale

If there was a game that could be used as a template to explain to the uninformed what DHL Stormers rugby is all about it could easily be this 40-0 win over the Sale Sharks in their third round Investec Championship Cup in front of a big and appreciative DHL Stadium crowd.

The Stormers scored six tries to nil to claim a full house of points but you wouldn’t have put money on that being the outcome in the early minutes of the game when Sale started with much huff and puff and applied a lot of pressure but were incredibly wasteful in their many visits into the Stormers 22.

Not that it was just down to themselves, and this was very much a vintage Stormers performance as they relied heavily on the tenets, meaning resilient and suffocating defence and lethal attacking on the counter from chaos, that won them the Vodacom United Rugby Championship trophy in that competition’s inaugural season.

That was certainly the story of a first half where they were under pressure in their own half for much of the way against a Sale team that brought the physicality, driving and mauling game that was expected.

TOUGH DAY FOR FRANS

Springbok double World Cup winning tighthead prop Frans Malherbe had a rare tough day at the office and suffered the ignominy of being yellow carded towards the end of the half, although let it be said it wasn’t entirely certain that the French referee was getting his calls right when it came to the scrums. Some of the Sale tactics looked suspicious, in other words they were scrumming in.

Nonetheless, it is a rare sight indeed to see a Stormers scrum destroyed like it was in an early attacking position. That scrum netted the Sharks one of several scrum penalties. Yet it was what preceded that scrum and the penalty that should have been taken as a warning by Sale, with the Stormers breaking out from near their own line through some excellent work from fullback Warrick Gelant.

The ball went down the line to left wing Ben Loader who kicked across and Wandisile Simelane, with a clear run to the line if he had caught it, was unable to control the ball. It was a let off Sale but there was to be no escape for them when, after applying so much pressure through territory territory and hogging the ball carrying, the Stormers again attacked from chaos and it ended up with scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer, who was good in this game, putting Simelane, also excellent, away down the right flank before transferring inside for big lock JD Schickerling to round off near the posts.

Schickerling was playing his landmark 50th game for the franchise so it was fitting to see him score the try that, with Manie Libbok’s conversion, put the Stormers into what at that stage, considering how much of the game Sale had had, was an unlikely 7-0 lead.

But the Stormers rediscovered in this match their old penchant for making it a double strike in quick time, and three minutes after that score Libbok showed his wizardry as the Stormers again attacked from deep and the Bok flyhalf used his kicking boot to loft the ball over the defence, gather himself and then run more than 50 metres to score.

CREDIT TO STORMERS DEFENSIVE SYSTEM

With 26 minutes gone it was 14-0 to the Stormers in a game where they could easily have been behind given the number of kickable penalty attempts Sale turned down. It is credit to the Stormers defensive system that they frustrated the visitors from Manchester like they did, and after those two tries the other parts of the Stormers game systematically came together as they turned on the style in the summer sunshine.

It was 14-0 at halftime and although Libbok was off having a cut attended to in the first 10 minutes of the second half, his replacement Jean-Luc du Plessis reminded us of the depth the Stormers have in the position. It was his pinpoint line penalty that effectively set up the attack that led to the third try, scored by prop Sti Sithole. The Stormers didn’t maul it over, but from their attacking position they executed a series of pick and goes that eventually saw Sithole drive over.

It was a difficult, angled conversion, but Du Plessis made no mistake as the score was stretched to 21-0 after 44 minutes. Under pressure, the tiring Sales Sharks started to make mistakes and lose their discipline, and it was obvious there would be no comeback from them, particularly when they lost two players in quick succession to warranted yellow cards.

CLEVERLY EXPLOITED NUMERICAL ADVANTAGE WITH GELANT TRY

Libbok was back on the field by the time Sale went down to 13 and it wasn’t a surprise when from another attacking lineout on the Sale line instead of mauling it the Stormers opted to use Libbok’s long passing ability to exploit the space that would be awaiting them out wide. Man of the match Gelant it was who looped aroundinto that space for the try that ensured that the Stormers would end with a four try bonus point in addition to the four for the win.

Replacement scrumhalf Paul de Wet and replacement hooker Andre-Hugo Venter joined the try scoring feast after that as the Stormers completed a comprehensive rout that should at least bring a different perspective to the relative strengths of South African and English club rugby to the one that was created when their second string team was thrashed by Harlequins in December.

Talking about second string and depth, although the Stormers had some of their big stagers back, and Evan Roos made a pleasing return from the bench, it was also a game where some who have not featured that much, such as Roche, Simelane and Ungerer, were very much to the fore. It puts the Stormers in a much healthier space than they were just three days ago and they will head to France to play Racing next week still in with a chance of advancing to the playoffs in this competition.

Scores

DHL Stormers 40 - Tries: JD Schickerling, Manie Libbok, Sti Stihole, Warrick Gelant, Paul de Wet and Andre-Hugo Venter;

Conversions: Manie Libbok 4 and Jean-Luc du Plessis. Sale Sharks 0