A handful of Stormers youngsters have given director of rugby John Dobson plenty to think about ahead of the new United Rugby Championship (URC) season after impressing in their pre-season warm-up clash against the Bulls in Paarl on Friday.
Despite going down 38-26 to the visitors at Faure Street Stadium in the Winelands, the end result won’t be much of a headache for the Cape side.
Up front, the scrums were outstanding, and the Stormers often had the Bulls going backwards, winning a couple of penalties in that facet of play. This dominance continued into the second half, with the pack of the Pretoria side having no answer for the powerful scrums.
Both teams had good success with their rolling mauls, but it was the visitors who dominated here, scoring a few tries with their rumbling forwards. The Stormers also claimed a penalty try with a strong effort in the second half.
However, errors after the break, like a charged-down kick off the boot of replacement flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed and some miscommunication in the midfield that left a gaping hole on defence, led to the two tries that swung the game back in favour of the Bulls.
A good early shift by seasoned players like captain Marcell Coetzee, eighthman Jeandré Rudolph, fellow loose-forward Hanro Liebenberg and fullback Willie le Roux helped the visitors into a 17-12 lead at half-time. Other standout performers for the Bulls were winger Sebastian de Klerk, who looked sharp on attack following a long injury lay-off, scrumhalf Paul de Wet and inside centre Stravino Jacobs.
“I just told Dobbo (Dobson), it was perfect in terms of what we wanted to see from the players,” Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann said after the match.
“There were errors that we know we must fix, but the big plus is there were no injuries. Willie had a bit of tightness in his hamstring, but furthermore we came through the game unscathed. There were some good moments and we are happy about it.”
On the Stormers’ side, Boland club rugby speedster Lleyton Davids scored with virtually his first touch, beating Bulls flyer Thaakir Abrahams with his blistering pace to sprint down the touchline and dot down, and Abrahams is no slouch himself. But the way he outpaced Abrahams showed that there is some magic in him.
Young fullback Dylan Miller bagged two tries and looked solid after featuring strongly in the Currie Cup campaign for the Stormers XXIII. Rookie forwards Ollie Reid (prop), and loose-forwards Louw Nel and Xola Nyali, also had good games alongside eighthman Hacjivah Dayimani.
“Look, I’m super happy to be honest,” Dobson said afterwards.
“I thought given the number of guys that we optionally pulled out of this game, 17 out of the 31 players have never played URC, so to go toe-to-toe with that Bulls team was good. I am quite excited about the performance from Lleyton. He was better than I thought he was going to be. I think there’s something really there.”
It was a solid hit-out for both sides ahead of the URC kick-off in late September. Both coaches were able to experiment and see which players are ready for what awaits. And the positive from the afternoon in Paarl is that they did not pick up any injuries ahead of the new season.
Stormers 26 (12): Tries: Dylan Miller (2), Lleyton Davids, Penalty try. Conversions: Jurie Matthee (2). Bulls 38 (17): Tries: Jeandré Rudolph, Hanro Liebenberg, Thaakir Abrahams, Viaan Mentoor, JJ Theron, Sebastian de Klerk. Conversions: Ruben Groenewald, Mentoor (3).
