5 things that made the Stormers, Sharks United Rugby Championship clash such a crazy watch

Stormers fans celebrate during the URC game against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. Picture: Shaun Roy BackpagePix

Stormers fans celebrate during the URC game against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. Picture: Shaun Roy BackpagePix

Published Mar 5, 2023

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Cape Town - Jekyll and Hyde performances from the Stormers and Sharks made for an entertaining 80 minutes during their United Rugby Championship coastal derby on Saturday.

The Stormers were in total control during the first 40 minutes before the Sharks produced a Lazarus-like performance in the final 40 to almost secure a shock win at Cape Town Stadium.

IOL Sport's Leighton Koopman takes a look at five things that kept the pendulum swinging from one side to the other until the end.

Rock-solid Stormers defence

The Stormers were under the pump with 13 players in the final minutes of the match. Sazi Sandi and Seabelo Senatla were punished with yellow cards for professional fouls.

Yet with 13 players to defend a three-point lead, the Stormers defended as if their URC crown depended on it.

Similarly, they kept the Sharks at bay in the opening 10 minutes where Curwin Bosch's boot kept his team on the front foot. But even when they knocked on the door, the Stormers scrambled brilliantly and the visitors could only show six solitary points from their first-half efforts.

And after quick-fire three tries of the Sharks, one where centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg, powered through several defenders to score, the Stormers still managed to keep the visitors at bay.

Silky Stormers handling sparks tries

Yes, it wasn't the smoothest of games for the Stormers as they tried to play hot-potato rugby from the get-go and initially struggled to get the ball to stick to their hands.

But in the week the team already said it doesn't matter what happens, they'll stick with the plan to throw the ball around and score tries.

Eventually, the quick and slick passes started sticking for the home team and they had the crowd of just over 30 000 on their feet.

First, the Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu try came from a slick Clayton Blommetjies offload.

Blommetjies himself scored after a brilliant scrum move that saw flyhalf Manie Libbok loop behind Feinberg-Mngomezulu and deliver a bullet-like pass, which created space for Blommetjies to run onto it to beat the defence of Werner Kok over the tryline.

Blink and you'll miss him

A big part of the Sharks' comeback on Saturday was when Grant Williams decided to take the game to the Stormers with his speed and agility.

The quick scrumhalf scored his seventh try of the season and the vital one that brought his side to within three points of the Stormers.

After a disrupted lineout, he summed up the situation and space in front of him quickly to blitz through a disjointed Stormers defence.

He still had work to do and bedazzled Senatla, with an inside-outside sidestep that had the speedy Stormers wing attempt to trip him.

Williams though kept his feet to run in and score the vital try to keep his team in the game. He is currently the top try-scoring South African in the URC.

Senatla also copped a yellow card for the attempted trip.

Williams will have to sharpen up on his box kicks though because one poor execution indirectly led to an intercept try for the Stormers.

One step forward, two steps back for the Sharks

Take the incident right after Yaw Penxe scored the Sharks’ first try of the game, almost midway through the second half. It was a brilliant score created thanks to a deft chip-kick by Bosch.

Penxe was on hand to score and was tackled over the line by Deon Fourie. Then Kok, in a moment of ill-discipline, decided to get into a jersey-pulling contest with Fourie who had every right to try and stop Penxe.

The result after some handbags from both sides was that the try stood but a penalty, and not a kickoff, was awarded to the Stormers on the halfway line because of Kok's actions.

Just as the Sharks made headway with the try that kick-started the second half, this incident took them two steps back.

Twice they were caught throwing the ball around behind their tryline, which led to scrums for the Stormers as the Sharks were forced to dot down the ball after being swamped by the home side's defenders.

The Stormers' scrum rumbles on

Just like in Durban, the Sharks with their young props copped a few massive blows from the Stormers in the scrums.

The home team dominated this facet of the game comfortably and there was a sense that they would milk penalties with their scrum all day long. It also helped them out of trouble a couple of times when the Sharks were looking sharp.

Props Ali Vermaak and Neethling Fouche along with hooker Joseph Dweba definitely had the upper hand over their counterparts, but they would've maybe wanted more assistance from the pitch.

At almost every scrum the pitch lifted and both teams struggled to get a grip.

The Stormers, though, with the home-ground advantage knew how to deal with the conditions.

When Vermaak and Fouche left the field, the Sharks scrum started doing better and even won a penalty against the home team.