Even if they get overtaken by the Bulls on the log table later today, the Stormers can feel that yesterday’s emphatic Super Rugby win over the champion Reds has retained their strong grip on the battle for supremacy in the South African Conference.
Should the Bulls win against the Brumbies at Loftus and pick up a four-try bonus point, it will enable them to overtake the Stormers, who picked up four log points for their two tries to one victory.
But their lead will only be one point, and the Stormers must fancy their chances of grabbing a full house in their final tour match against the Western Force in Perth next week.
Even if they return to South Africa marginally behind the Bulls on log points, the Stormers should feel they have made significant inroads into their quest for a second successive conference title in that the Bulls still have to go on tour.
Impressive though the Bulls have been up to now, the big test for their young team was always going to come once they left the Highveld.
The Stormers have done what in cricketing parlance you would refer to as putting runs on the board by winning two out of their three matches on the road, and after yesterday’s solid display they must be red-hot favourites to pick up a third win on the road against the Force on Saturday.
The Stormers’ first stumble was last week against the Crusaders in Christchurch, and they were desperate to get back to their winning ways in the third tour match.
There was seldom any doubt they would achieve their objective, as they controlled the game from the opening minutes and just never allowed the Reds into the contest.
Once again, like the opening tour win against the Highlanders two weeks ago, the Stormers out-muscled their opponents and showed superb control as they blanketed the Reds with their organised and physical defensive system.
The Cape team scored two first-half tries and led 17-3 at the break.
It was a good win for the Stormers as they played with a depleted team following the return home of skipper Jean de Villiers and the withdrawal of vice-captain Andries Bekker, with stand-in captain Duane Vermeulen proving his leadership potential by leading from the front with another hugely influential game.
The Reds did have possession in the early minutes, but it was the ease with which the Stormers, with Siya Kolisi again massive and Eben Etzebeth, Rynhardt Elstadt, Vermeulen and Tiaan Liebenberg equally so, that sounded an ominous warning to the hosts.
In the eighth minute the Stormers forced their way into Reds territory after a big tackle from Juan de Jongh forced yet another turnover, and Gio Aplon scored the first try of the match as the Stormers built up through an excellent little break from Peter Grant off an attacking lineout.
The flyhalf kicked the conversion to go with an earlier penalty and the Stormers were ahead 10-0 after fewer minutes. You give a good defensive team such as the Stormers a lead like that and you are in trouble, and so it proved as the visitors just appeared to keep their opponents at arms-length for the rest of the game.
One area that didn’t function for the Stormers on the night, however, was the lineout – perhaps unsurprisingly considering they were without stalwart Bekker, who watched from the stands.
They lost four lineouts against the throw in the first half, and that prevented them from picking up momentum, but after 36 minutes they scored a brilliant length-of-the field try in which they systematically built up, with Steven Kitshoff putting in a great dart down the touchline before transferring the ball inside, and eventually it was Grant who dotted down near the posts as the Reds just ran out of defenders.
The Stormers did look a bit fatigued near the end, but apart from a gift try to James Horwill in the 62nd minute as the umpteenth Stormers lineout overthrow landed in the lock’s hands on the Stormers tryline, the Reds never really gave any indication they were capable of making inroads into the deficit and slumped to a rare home defeat against a team that successfully got back on the bike after the disappointment of Christchurch six days earlier. - Saturday Argus