[2018 Super Rugby] Round 1: Stormers vs. Jaguares (17/02/2018)

[TRF_stormer2010]

A ton to work on but a win is a win. That good old Stormers mental frailty nearly put us in a position where we lost the game whereas anyone looking at the scoreboard after 30 minutes would've been excused for thinking the Stormers were on target for a BP win. We tend to play to the opposition rather than ourselves. It reminds me of my 4 year old boy taking part in the 60m for pre-schoolers a few weeks back. He could've competed for 1st but spent so much time looking over his shoulder he nearly didn't even place. Expected from a 4 year old. Lamentable from a professional senior sports team. Full credit to the Jaguares though for coming back and staying in the game.

Its frustrating to follow both these teams. I have to admit though, I am glad I'm not a Jaguares supporter. Its only the first game of the season but it doesn't look like they've improved on their shortcomings and one can't put it down to inexperience, lack of game time together or being new to the tournament any more.

 

[FNS]

I just dont get it. We used to miss tackles when we were undersized back in the 90/2000...ok valid. Now we are mostly on par in every position or even bigger than the other team and we still miss tackles. Awful match from Lavanini, Desio and the 3rd row overall.

Sharks lost but got the BP. We miss a good chance there.

 

[Gena_ZA]

Stormers 1st game as expected, start well and could have put it away before halftime.
Then run into some issues up front, get a yellow and see two debutants facing the music.
2nd half defend like demons and loose structure. In general played way below their potential and made the Jaguares look good in the 2nd half

Nice to see the wingers getting some action, backline could get dangerous
Would like to see what they can do against the Tahs on tour

 

[Hound]

Yeah, yeah, the Jaguares missed tackles but even bigger was the lack of creativity.

Can't keep repeatedly running high two or one off the ruck for phase after phase and expect to keep the ball for long. You'll be having to make a lot of tackles if you play like that repeatedly.

Good to see Super Rugby is back. Missed the faster paced game.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Yeah, yeah, the Jaguares missed tackles but even bigger was the lack of creativity.

Really? We lost by 8 points. 14 points from the Stormers came from 2 plays where a single Stormers player went pass 4 or more Jaguares....

I cannot recall another game where a team that had any aspirations to qualify (meaning no SW, no Kings, etc) had such a low tackle success rate. Not one.

 

[Hound]

I lost count of the number of time the Jaguares lost the ball going in high at B post off the ruck. Either from pilfers or knocking the ball on because the Stormers went all out knowing exactly where the ball was going before the half even slung it. The only tries they scored came from the scrum (which looked like the only way they would) and one instance where they actually deviated, slung it wide and ran in some space.

Yes, you're not going to win if you miss every other tackle, but you're also not going to win if you're losing the ball every time you get possession by playing predictable two-off rugby (especially when you go into that contact situation high all the time).

All in all they're lucky the Stormers weren't more patient and disciplined in defense. The scrum was the only chance at getting in that they had.

 

[Zero]

I wouldn't be too dishearted if I were the Jaguares, Cape Town is a tough first gig, if the fixture was reversed it could have been a win.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Disagree. First you handle the elephant in the room, which is a mixture of tackling and choking. Whenever we reach a make-or-break situation we consistently fail to deliver.
We had a better scrum, we had an extra man, they had a centre as a flanker, we destroyed the last 2 scrums, and yet we lost the one that mattered.
The issue you point out is arguably not even in the top 3 of the problems we have.

@Zero : our next two games are vs Lions and Canes. This was our best shot at not going 0-0-3.

 

[Zero]

That's the new format, no prisoners!