Veteran Welsh flyhalf Rhys Priestland turned in a field and place-kicking masterclass to spearhead a 30-24 win for Cardiff that ended the DHL Stormers’ long unbeaten Vodacom United Rugby Championship run at a wet Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday night.
The Stormers scored four tries to two and there were stages of the game where they looked like they might just take control, but they struggled against a Cardiff team that dominated the battle for turnover possession and which just kicked a lot better out of hand than the Stormers did.
It wasn’t a complete disaster for the Stormers, who fielded another changed-up team in this game, for in losing by less than seven and scoring four tries they still managed to pick up two bonus points, which was the equivalent of the draw they managed against the Ospreys in the Swansea monsoon last week.
The conditions in this game were nowhere near as bad as they were in Swansea, but Stormers coach John Dobson, once he gets over the disappointment of seeing his team not quite being on point in key areas, should reckon that four points from two games in northern hemisphere weather wasn’t a complete disaster.
TRY TALLY SAYS STORMERS WERE BETTER TEAM
However, it was a game that the Stormers should have expected to win, and their dominance of the try tally tells its own story. But it was a night that belonged to Priestland in particular, with the home team’s No 10 completely eclipsing his Stormers opposite number Manie Libbok on the night.
While Libbok missed touch from a few penalties and also missed some kicks from the tee, Priestland was on point with everything he did with the exception of his first conversion attempt. Apart from the 20 points he kicked through six penalties and one conversion, he engineered both of the Cardiff tries, both of which the Stormers, on reflection, will consider soft scores on a night where their back three struggled with the opposition's aerial attack.
The first came when Cardiff had just gone into a 6-0 lead in the 15th minute through Priestland’s second penalty. Clayton Blommetjies, who struggled to field kicks cleanly on the night, fumbled and then, when the ball went into Cardiff territory, it was Priestland who unleashed the sliding cross kick that bounced perfectly for wing Theo Cabango to go over untouched with the Stormers wingers unsighted.
The second try came when Priestland kicked onto the other Cardiff wing Jason Harries and again the Stormers wingers were nowhere to be seen and fullback Blommetjies was too slow to get across. The Stormers had just restored the battle to 15 men against 15 after Hacjivah Dayimani had completed 10 minutes in the bin for a ridiculous yellow card - it was an accidental clash of heads, no more than that - so the score, which came three minutes into the second half to break the 14-14 halftime score, came at a crucial time.
The Stormers scored driving maul tries almost at will when they were in the Cardiff 22, at least until one late effort that was only just held up, and came back to score two more after that in the second half. But Libbok’s failure to convert, coupled with the Stormers’ indiscipline that presented Priestland with kicking opportunities, cost them in the end as it meant they weren't able to get in front.
FURIOUS TURNOVER INTENT
What was also costly was the Stormers’ inability to hold onto the ball in the face of the ferocious turnover intent of the hosts, who ended up with 14 turnovers to their credit by the end of the game and were 10-3 up in that department early in the second half.
When you get turned over that often, you can’t really expect to win, and the handling of the Cardiff, and for that read Priestland, kicking game also let them down badly. Whereas the Stormers’ kicks were too often misdirected and easily handled by Cardiff, the Stormers struggled with the pinpoint accuracy of their opponents’ aerial game.
Perhaps there was a misreading of the way the synthetic pitch played when the ball bounced too, though it did appear to help the Stormers when they crossed for their second try and the only one not to come from a driving maul. That came in the 27th minute, after the Stormers had earlier got themselves back into the game from an 11-point deficit courtesy of the first driving maul try to be dotted down by the impressive Nama Xaba, with Libbok putting in a pinpoint kick that bounced perfectly for Leolin Zas.
Libbok’s conversion made it 14-11 to the Stormers and that was the point when it looked like they might be about to break down the dam wall, but alas then came the clash of heads that saw Dayimani yellow-carded and that robbed the Stormers of the impetus that had been building. After that, it always looked like being a close game, although the four tries to two tally does tell you it was a game the visitors should really have won.
SCORES
Cardiff 30 - Tries: Theo Cabango and Jason Harries; Conversion: Rhys Priestland; Penalties: Rhys Priestland 6.
DHL Stormers 24 - Tries: Nama Xaba 2, Leolin Zas and Junior Pokomela; Conversions: Manie Libbok 2.