The Stormers kept Leinster scoreless for 81 minutes in the opening round of the United Rugby Championship but it took Welsh club Ospreys less than three minutes to break down the home defence in round two action. Unfortunately for the visitors that was as good as it got on another night of Friday night rugby in Cape Town.
These Friday evening matches, kicking off at 19.00, are not ideal for a city with the worst traffic congestion in Africa.
Still, it says everything for the support of the Stormers that on back-to-back Friday nights they could total 14,000 at the ground from 18,000 tickets sold for the two matches.
This total, by Stormers standards, may seem low, but in the context of the opening fortnight of the league it is a fine return because no other team has managed such a crowd attendance.
The Stormers were always going to find Ospreys a different challenge to the defending champions Leinster, and the Welsh clubs do have a habit of unsettling South African teams, especially in the contestables and at the breakdown.
The Welsh clubs may be limited in ambition and talent, but they know how to scrap and they don’t give an inch. The Ospreys are a handful at the breakdown and they are masters of the legal and illegal when it comes to those dark arts.
The Stormers, who started the match without the specialist fetcher/jackal Paul de Villiers, were invariably troubled at the breakdown and were guilty of playing too much in their own half.
There are just so many questions and so few answers from the boys from Durban.
It gave Ospreys misguided belief and hope but this was always a match in which momentum was going to change the moment De Villiers and Springbok loose-forward BJ Dixon were introduced in the second half.
De Villiers, at 23 years old, is built like a staffie but has a lot more explosiveness. He is powerful over the ball, clever in his decision-making and is the natural successor to the 39-year-old Deon Fourie, who is expected to start his 2025/26 campaign during the Stormers’ three-match northern hemisphere tour this October.
De Villiers captained SA Under 20s in 2023 and played nine matches for South Africa’s junior Springboks in 2022 and 2023, and it was always when his introduction to the URC would come, and not if it would be the case.
He was a point of difference against the Ospreys, as well Dixon’s presence in the collisions and set piece.
Stormers fullback Wandile Simelane, given freedom to have a go from the back, was never shy to take on the defence, but while thrilling at times, there must be greater balance to his decision-making in when to have a go, make the pass or take the tackle.
The shock element of his step and go became laboured near the end as the opposition knew that his first option when countering would be to step and go. He is too talented to be a one-trick pony.
The Stormers were made to fight for the 26-10 win, which is the type of challenge that will be beneficial to the humility needed from a squad that has never played to its potential overseas.
Stormers midfielder and captain Ruan Nel continues to impress with his leadership and his play, in attack, and defensively, has been as impressive.
The Stormers, two from two, have experienced their most productive opening fortnight in the league’s five season history, but the same is not true of the underwhelming and underperforming Sharks.
There are just so many questions and so few answers from the boys from Durban.
They have six big name players on Springboks duty and will be a very different match 23 as the 18-round league takes shape, but their first two matches were poor and the 17-all draw against the Dragons at Rodney Parade in Newport was ordinary from a squad in which there is such player investment.
The Dragons had not won in six league matches at home and were last season’s basement dwellers, yet they were a pass away from winning on Friday night.
Troubling times for the Sharks; not so the Stormers.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.