[2017 Super Rugby] QF4: Stormers vs. Chiefs (22/07/2017)

[Icemn]

.....i just saw who the ref is for this game... all i'm going to say is...

congrats stormers for reaching the Semi's, sorry Chiefs, you have no chance in hell!

 

[TRF_heineken]

I see Charlie Ngatai has been ruled out for the Chiefs for this match.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

.....i just saw who the ref is for this game... all i'm going to say is...

congrats stormers for reaching the Semi's, sorry Chiefs, you have no chance in hell!

I see Charlie Ngatai has been ruled out for the Chiefs for this match.

Stormers have no shot in hell of winning this even if we win it; it was always going to be either a straight loss to us or if we win the poor Chiefs up against format/travel/ref/injury/Suzie/global warming. If the Stormers were to lose out because of a poor ref performance it would of course "not of affected the outcome" of the match.

 

[Icemn]

Stormers have no shot in hell of winning this even if we win it; it was always going to be either a straight loss to us or if we win the poor Chiefs up against format/travel/ref/injury/Suzie/global warming. If the Stormers were to lose out because of a poor ref performance it would of course "not of affected the outcome" of the match.

no, not a poor refs decision but a blatant bias one...

 

[TRF_heineken]

Stormers have no shot in hell of winning this even if we win it; it was always going to be either a straight loss to us or if we win the poor Chiefs up against format/travel/ref/injury/Suzie/global warming. If the Stormers were to lose out because of a poor ref performance it would of course "not of affected the outcome" of the match.

Yeah, I have to say, the remarks already being made should the Stormers win this game, is rather appalling. completely discounting performance already...

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Stormers have no shot in hell of winning this even if we win it; it was always going to be either a straight loss to us or if we win the poor Chiefs up against format/travel/ref/injury/Suzie/global warming. If the Stormers were to lose out because of a poor ref performance it would of course "not of affected the outcome" of the match.

I mean... look where the chiefs are from.

 

[Larksea]

cmon, you have to admit the format and structure of this tournament is complete bullshit

chiefs are 12 wins 2 losses 1 draw F/A of +141 and 57 competition points
stormers are 10 wins 5 losses F/A of just 54 and 43 competition points, 14 points behind the chiefs in terms of super rugby where final positions are usually decided by single points that is a vast gap

yet its the stormers who have home ground advantage.

At the very least I am hoping for neutral referees. Do we know who the refs are yet?

Not good news for the chiefs with Ngatai out. Also interesting that Alex Nankivell isn't with the traveling squad. means we will have a new Midfield combo with ALB and either Donald or TNW. Likely start TNW and bring Donald off the bench.

 

[SomeOke]

Not good news for the chiefs with Ngatai out. Also interesting that Alex Nankivell isn't with the traveling squad. means we will have a new Midfield combo with ALB and either Donald or TNW. Likely start TNW and bring Donald off the bench.

You guys have started Donald at 12 for the majority of the season when you're lacking centres and he's been pretty good there for me.
As for professional refs I don't think any are actually biased in this day and age they can just have bad games.

TMO's and linesmen are a different story.

 

[TRF_heineken]

cmon, you have to admit the format and structure of this tournament is complete bullshit

chiefs are 12 wins 2 losses 1 draw F/A of +141 and 57 competition points
stormers are 10 wins 5 losses F/A of just 54 and 43 competition points, 14 points behind the chiefs in terms of super rugby where final positions are usually decided by single points that is a vast gap

yet its the stormers who have home ground advantage.

At the very least I am hoping for neutral referees. Do we know who the refs are yet?

Not good news for the chiefs with Ngatai out. Also interesting that Alex Nankivell isn't with the traveling squad. means we will have a new Midfield combo with ALB and either Donald or TNW. Likely start TNW and bring Donald off the bench.

The referee is Jaco Peyper.

And while you may want to point to the stats of these 2 teams, you have to say that this year, I think the win ratio's are a bit more favourable towards the Chiefs than the Stormers, as the Chiefs had the honour of playing against all abysmal Aussie sides, while the Stormers didn't...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

cmon, you have to admit the format and structure of this tournament is complete bullshit

chiefs are 12 wins 2 losses 1 draw F/A of +141 and 57 competition points
stormers are 10 wins 5 losses F/A of just 54 and 43 competition points, 14 points behind the chiefs in terms of super rugby where final positions are usually decided by single points that is a vast gap

yet its the stormers who have home ground advantage.

At the very least I am hoping for neutral referees. Do we know who the refs are yet?

Not good news for the chiefs with Ngatai out. Also interesting that Alex Nankivell isn't with the traveling squad. means we will have a new Midfield combo with ALB and either Donald or TNW. Likely start TNW and bring Donald off the bench.

No one remotely reasonable has ever said the format is perfect.. or even good as far as I've seen. You'll also struggle to find a Stormers or any SA team's supporter for that matter who'd rather watch our sides play Aussie team rather than NZ or our own.

Given the nature of the teams (varying numbers spread across 4 continents) in this tournament there is no way have a fair tournament. You will find every conference system in every sport ever has top teams from each progress as one of the top seeds. Its a caveat to the nature of conference system tournaments. There have been recent (within the last 5 years) seasons in S'15' where the SA conference have had the log points on our side and you didn't see Saffa poster give more than a slight moan about the format making.. it was either the Bulls or Sharks (I can't quite recall) missing out on the playoffs. I've never, not once, seen an Aussie or NZ poster acknowledge that in this format the Stormers have literally double the traveling kms than the Blues for instance. That is simply not a factor supposedly. Up until the play-offs when NZ teams need to come here then its foul play!

It just gets old, you know. Australasian posters (TBF more on other platforms than this one in particular) having a go at SA and SA teams rather than the format which is more than anything an Aussie brainchild if any nation is to be blamed. In any case its changing next year and who knows, SA might even leave on the whole for good sooner rather than later.

The refs are out yes. Peyper for this one. That's why Icemn is already getting the whinges in early.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

cmon, you have to admit the format and structure of this tournament is complete bullshit

We've had this argument here on TRF a million times before and although we all agree it is far from perfect, i've yet to hear a single proposal that takes into account # of teams, rating, time zones, internationals window and travelling and is still objectively better than the one we have. That's probably one of the reasons they are reducing the number of teams, something has to give.

 

[Penne Rara]

.....i just saw who the ref is for this game... all i'm going to say is...

congrats stormers for reaching the Semi's, sorry Chiefs, you have no chance in hell!

Jaco?

Edit: Oh Heineken already answered that question!

 

[nzlizard]

The Chiefs should win this when you look at the 2 teams, however finals footy is decided by which team turns up and is hungrier on the day.

Home ground advantage does count esp with the travel factor.

I agree with the call above about professional refs don't appear to be biased, however more the consistency of the ref and their performance in general.

Not even gonna bother going into the format issue, been flogged to death and we all know that.

 

[George Ford]

Getting closer to kick off and even tougher to call. The only relevant permutation both teams will be taking into account going into this game is the last time they faced off. That aspect, from a psychological pov, pits both teams on equal footing imo.

On the day, the old tune of "the battle will be won up front", very much applies. Rather more appropriately put, the crux of this game will be won in the contact situations. Kiwi teams have mastered the art both in the way they defend (emphasis on tackle completion; attack breakdown on 2nd or 3rd phase or target key runners) and more particularly on attack (hit to offload).

Due to the Stormers lack of awareness and core skills in this area (or know-how) to playing this kind of game, last year's fixture wasn't even a contest, which is why I feel the home side have turned the corner on that, backed up by their victory in the league phase.

Nevertheless, mistakes are going to occur and in that regard I wouldn't mind the Chiefs to have the bigger share of ball possession, if it affords the guys to perfect their tackling technique in the game rather than doing all the attacking to no avail and get caught on the backfoot. I have seen in a lot of games that the team that gets the best defensive workout tends to have the physical ascendancy as the game goes on.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Stormers team has been announced and added to the OP.


I see Steven Kitshoff is not eligible to play for the Stormers and has joined a couple of other players for the Springbok conditioning and assessment workshop for next week.

 

[Larksea]

chiefs named, beaver does start at 12 the only concern really is how long he would last. He has worked quite well off the bench, I think compared to TNW he will be much better in the defense department early on. Beavers long passing was really good last weekend when he came on maybe he will be used to distribute more.

Brown starts at lock and Bird is on the bench. Alaimalo continues at 14, been a great find this season.

Chiefs: Damian McKenzie, Solomon Alaimalo, Anton Lienert-Brown, Stephen Donald, James Lowe, Aaron Cruden (co-c), Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Michael Leitch, Sam Cane (co-c), Liam Messam, Mitchell Brown, Brodie Retallick, Nepo Laulala, Nathan Harris, Kane Hames. Reserves: Liam Polwart, Aidan Ross, Atu Moli, Dominic Bird, Lachlan Boshier, Finlay Christie, Tim Nanai-Williams, Shaun Stevenson.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers overall record against the Chiefs
Played 19 , Wins 10 , Losses 9, Draws 0

Average score: Stormers 26 Chiefs 28

Last five results
Sat, 08 Apr 2017 Stormers v Chiefs 34-26 Cape Town
Sat, 23 Jul 2016 Elim Stormers v Chiefs 21-60 Cape Town
Sat, 14 Mar 2015 Stormers v Chiefs 19-28 Cape Town
Fri, 14 Mar 2014 Stormers v Chiefs 20-36 Hamilton
Sat, 09 Mar 2013 Stormers v Chiefs 36-34 Cape Town

Everything suggests this will be a cracker. In tandem with the Crusaders Highalnders game the game to watch. Weather will be lekker tomorrow so should add to what I expect to be a spectacle as I think the Stormers will look keep ball in hand more often than not (unless we are pinned in our half which could very easily happen since we have a 19 year old fly half with a handful of SR caps). We'll have to wait and see.

 

[George Ford]

Chiefs looks stronger man to man

 

[SomeOke]

Chiefs looks stronger man to man

They do, to win it's going to come down to the tight five and tactics.
Dominate up front and never give their backs any opportunities to attack - that should be the mantra. If you kick to D-Mac or Lowe you're just giving away tries.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Chiefs getting the benefit of the whistle. Perfect eample at the end there. I am dead sure SP Maris wasn't allowed to place there. If anything tahts a penalty to us in position. But no.

We are up for this though.