Super 15: Stormers vs Blues - Fort Newlands (16/3/2012 17:10 GMT)

[SomeOke]

Newlands Stadium, Cape Town (16/3/2012, 17:10 GMT)

Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Stefan Breytenbach (South Africa)
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)


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Hope it's OK that I made the topic I'm just really exited to talk about the game . Don't mean to be presumptuous.


Anyway moving on, I don't believe the blues have released their team yet but the stormers are as follow:

Stormers
15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Subs: 16 S Ntubeni, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Louis Schrueder, 21 Gary van Aswegen, 22 Gerhard van den Heever


Nothing really unexpected as we've been fairly lucky with injuries so far (with the exception of Schalk), and the team is pretty much full strength, the Blues on the other hand have picked up a few injuries/citings in: Toeva, Kaino, Ranger, Wulf, Boric and Woodcock.

Despite this the Blues have a lot to prove, and will no doubt want this victory badly as two away wins in SA would really show the competition they are real competitors, not to mention they will really bring their A-game to honour a great man in the late Hobbs as well as the fact that they have enough quality depth to make the injuries less severe.

However the stormers are a fairly settled outfit and will not go down easily, especially after a weeks rest and playing at home.


In my opinion the stormers should edge this by a hair, but anything can happen and I certainly wouldn't put any money on that outcome.

Discuss.

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[Draggs]

Cheers, we've all been a bit busy lately, appreciate you putting this us.

 

[FlukeArtist]

Not good news losing Boric, but I have a feeling Ali Williams will really step it up a notch this week.
He copped a bit of flak in an interview over here where fans questions were put to him. One asked why he performs for the ABs, but not for the Blues... he took exception to that, so I wouldn't be suprised if he goes out to prove some people wrong this week.

Also, it can't be underestimated the impact the death of Jock Hobbs will have on this team. Not only was he well known and liked amongst a lot of the players (especially the ABs in the team) but he is the father of Blues player Michael Hobbs.
The team will want to honour not only Jock's memory, but their team mate as well.

In saying that though... this game is too close to call.

 

[Larksea]

I would have picked the blues but their injury and suspension list isn't looking very good.

Boric joins Jerome Kaino, Isaia Toeava, George Moala and Rudi Wulf on the injured list while Michael Hobbs is on bereavement leave, Ranger is suspended and Tony Woodcock is yet to return from extended leave following the WC.

They are boosted by the weepu, Anscombe & Nonu combo that I think will server them well but that is a lot of firepower missing

Heat really goes on the Braid Bothers and Ali Williams to perform.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Seeing that I'm gonna attend the game I'm really hoping the Stormers take this one. They really should; being at home and having a more settled squad AND the bye last week. Just hoping they don't let the Blues into the game with silly penalties and mistakes like they did with the Hurricanes and hopefully Grant can get the backline going as we looked a bit lacking against the Sharks.

I'm just wondering how we get a Kiwi ref for this one? I could understand an Aussie ref (impartial) or a SA one (local) but a Kiwi ref? Just as well, I guess. I will never understand SANZAR.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Seeing that I'm gonna attend the game I'm really hoping the Stormers take this one. They really should; being at home and having a more settled squad AND the bye last week. Just hoping they don't let the Blues into the game with silly penalties and mistakes like they did with the Hurricanes and hopefully Grant can get the backline going as we looked a bit lacking against the Sharks.

I'm just wondering how we get a Kiwi ref for this one? I could understand an Aussie ref (impartial) or a SA one (local) but a Kiwi ref? Just as well, I guess. I will never understand SANZAR.

yeah Stormers to take it, hopefully the game against the Bulls left the Blues with some bad bruises and that they will be underperforming in this game. The Stormers Rolling maul has been quite effective the last couple of weeks and the Bulls Showed that it's one area the Blues are infringing a lot.

Going to be a battle between Bekker and Williams, and with Ranger out of the Backline, the Blues looks a bit slowish in the backline... Nonu and Weepu might have an effect - If they were props and had to scrum... The Stormers speed in the Backline I think will be the difference in the match.

As for the Referees... dunno what's going on But Lyndon Bray is tonight on Boots&All to explain some of the Referee things we all have questions about and also in some way, to apologise for the 2 F***-ups the Refs made which cost 2 SA teams a possible victory (well in the Cheetahs case definitely). maybe the other NZ refs all jumped on a plane with him to come and enjoy some good weather and biltong...

 

[SomeOke]

Blues
15 Lachie Munro, 14 David Raikuna, 13 Benson Stanley, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sherwin Stowers, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Chris Lowrey, 7 Daniel Braid, 6 Luke Braid, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Filo Paulo, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Keven Mealamu (c), 1 Pauliasi Manu
Subs: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]16 Tom McCartney, 17 Tevita Mailau, 18 Brad Mika, 19 Peter Saili, 20 Alby Mathewson, 21 Hadleigh Parkes, 22 Ben Lam[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]Blues team. Seems like there will be quite a few interesting battles this weekend.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]A lot has been said about the Stormers lacking an Out an Out fetcher, and from what I remember both the Braid's are very good in that area, Stormers will need to police the break down very well, turnover ball can be very dangerous in the hands of a side like the blues.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]In my opinion Blues as an [/FONT]attacking unit [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]haven't been blunted at all but I would say they are slightly weaker defensively with perhaps slightly less grunt up front than they should have. I don't really know much about Paulo and Manu but I have a feeling we might have the advantage in the tight five.

The fly-half and centres battles should be interesting, youthful flair in Anscombe against unremarkable but reliable Grant, and Nonu/Stanley agaisnt JdV/JdJ as far as the centres go I would say there isn't much in it, both teams defend really well in that area although if anything is going to happen it will no doubt be created through Nonu or JdJ (albeit in very different ways).

As for outside backs the Blues do look a little weak in defence as I don't really rate Raikuna or Turner defensively, although both teams have a players who can score tries (the blues more so than the stormers).
It looks like AC wants to keep things fairly forward oriented: [/FONT]http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/super14/news/2858244.htm which I'd say is probably the smart move but it could backfire.

Either way this is what I live for Derbies are interesting but seeing some of NZ/SA's top teams duke it out is what Super Rugby is all about.
SUPER KEEN!

Oh and Stormers by 7 .

 

[Gena_ZA]

Hope the Stormers keep this one tight, they have the better line out and great pack for the driving mall with Koster steering it.
Bash to bring a bit of balance and if Jean de Villiers would wake up again sometime this season the attacking backs can come into play again.
Stormers should take it, i hope...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Hope the Stormers keep this one tight, they have the better line out and great pack for the driving mall with Koster steering it.
Bash to bring a bit of balance and if Jean de Villiers would wake up again sometime this season the attacking backs can come into play again.
Stormers should take it, i hope...

Jean had his best game of the season so far. Hope he can build on it. Looking at the game from the stands you could see the Blues were coming up very flat and very fast. Borderline offside and making their first time tackles made it very hard for the Stormers backline.

The game was won upfront though as the Blues looked uncomfrotable at the line-out and Kitshoff shortened Faumainu by about 2cm in the scrums over the evening. That laitie has looked the business in Superrugby thus far. Is it that the opposition he's faced is poor; a depleted Sharks and Blues tight five and the Hurricanes have never been known for their tight five or is he vastly improved from the Currie Cup? Maybe the time and confidence in top rugby is starting to show as he monstered anyone who scrummed against him in age-group rugby.

 

[FlukeArtist]

Blues were just plain awful.

Once again.

There has to be some massive changes in this franchise or nothing is going to change.

 

[donmcdazzle]

Wonder if the Blues are regretting the Weepu and Nonu moves. Mathewson must be raging about getting benched for Weepu again.

 

[FlukeArtist]

Imagine how satisfying it would be for Hammett if the Canes beat The Blues this friday

 

[Larksea]

well considering he (well the hurricanes) lost to the highlanders which include Hore and Gear if they do win I guess it will be about even.

and IMO it was Hammett who cut Nonu & Hore, he and his team and it cost him Weepu and Gear as a result. Hurricanes need to produce results to back up that move so really it's hammett who has something to lose. If Nonu has a blinder and the blues win Hammett will have egg on his face.

Will be a big game though, blues have a bit of a squad crisis with so many players out and they will have to recover fast from their away trip so they are ready to pick off. Both teams will have a chance to make a statement.

 

[FlukeArtist]

Well Larksea,

The Blues are my team, but boy do they suck right now.

It is groundhog season for us Blues fans i'm afraid.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Well Larksea,

The Blues are my team, but boy do they suck right now.

It is groundhog season for us Blues fans i'm afraid.

How is that different to any other season??

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying the Blues suck.

They were really disrupted in both the forwards and backs prior to the game and during the game they lost Anscombe to the bloodbin for a while as well. The Stormers have a knack of making teams who rely on gaining front foot ball look average for large parts of a game through gritty driving defense but the Blues looked very dangerous once they gained some momentum.

It's early in the season yet and most teams would be very happy to come away with 4 log points after playing away to the Bulls and Stormers.

 

[Gena_ZA]

Maybe teams are now noticing the Stormers forwards are not that "soft" any more
Glad to see JdV coming back in form , good allround performance by the Stormers

 

[Sam Owen]

Well Larksea,

The Blues are my team, but boy do they suck right now.

It is groundhog season for us Blues fans i'm afraid.

Its really down in the dumps for us brother. Im actually looking forward to watching the Chiefs more than any other team at the moment. Still I watch our team only to be dissapointed and not entertained. Dreadful.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Maybe teams are now noticing the Stormers forwards are not that "soft" any more
Glad to see JdV coming back in form , good allround performance by the Stormers

I'm very glad for the win but there's 2 things that still bug me;

- Peter Grant needs to step up in the tactical department. A team more focussed on playing a territory based game than the Blues would have probably beaten us over the weekend as we didn't gain too much ground with ball inhand and unless the backline get some better penetration or get the ball wider faster running from our own 22 isn't an option. On top of that our kickers got outdone for distance against a team not known for tactical kicking.
- we seem flat and somehow unorganised on attack and the ball hardly ever (or rather never) gets to the wings where they have any form of space to work with. Quicker hands, running from deeper, or better decision making from the halfbacks, I don't know but we won't be getting any bonuspoints for 4 tries if we don't sort something out in this regard.

 

[FlukeArtist]

How is that different to any other season??

That is kind of what "Groundhog season" means Heineken....